Wednesday, September 16, 2009
August 28th - September 11th
August 28th, 2009
I arrived in Shanghai’s Domestic Terminal at 5:30 P.M, and Joyce and her father who greeted me at the entrance. I was met by the father’s shofer to assist me with my laThe father had a shofer driving a Toyota SUV, I forgot the model. After a hour drive into the center of the city, we arrived at their apartment complex. Because their apartment was too small for a forth person, her family reserved a hotel room for me across the street, expenses paid, for both Friday and Saturday night. That evening, I met the entire family (Cai Baba - Father, Cai Mama - Mother, Cai Meimei - Joyce) had a dinner in celebration of my arrival. I felt I very welcomed. The parents are both Chemists, and Joyce is studying English, which she plans to use after graduation as an English teacher in Shanghai.
On Saturday, I got to experience one unforgettable event. I went to visit the SWFC. It is currently the tallest building in the world at 492 meters, which was just completed in 2008. Joyce parents accompanied us to the entrance, and then we left on our own as they had other plans for the afternoon. It was a breathtaking experience to overlook all of Shanghai including the bund and the 3,000 + skyscrapers that make up the horizon. It was truly surreal. The elevator ride was also unbelievable fast. From the basement, we reached the 97th floor, which was the SWFC Observatory, in a matter of 1 to 2 minutes. I felt like I was seated in an aircraft just after takeoff, except this was vertical motion rather than a gradual slope. I wouldn’t go in the details of the building, but it something worth reading about. The exterior and interior design, architectural structure, and state-of-the-art technologies are as futuristic as gets in the year 2009. Anyone interested can easily search it on Google.
In addition, the father and mother prepared an extravagant dinner when we returned. The father fancied seafood and cooked scallops, shrimp, and a California species of trout raised in China. There was a whole duck covered in soy sauce, black mushrooms, pork, white cabbage, and homemade southern-styled Jiaozi by Joyce and me. Wait a second; we also had about half a dozen bottles of Japanese branded beer. It was a wonderful, scrumptious treat! ☺
I will make one environmental comment, and it does have to do with food. It was interesting to notice the different in the consumption of meat with Joyce’s family than when I was in Lijiang. For instances, as we had dinner the first night, they ordered approximately … 4 dishes of duck, beef, and pork. I can remember when I ate in Lijiang, I was picking through my rice bowl for any miniscule pieces. I think the amount of meat I ate in that one dinner was equivalent to about one week of meat for the entire 5 LGEC group. The point here is that I got to observe the difference between rural and urban eating habits and also see the connection between affluence and consumption of meat.
August 30th, 2009
Joyce and I hitched a ride with the father’s shofer to the Shanghai Airport to drop of her father who was leaving Da Lian and Chengdu for work-related meetings. Supposedly, Cai Baba frequently traveled domestically across China. I had realized how fortunate I was to have meet Joyce’s father that weekend and have her entire family give me a tour of Shanghai.
The shofer arrived at the entrance of the Shanghai Business University at 3:00 P.M., and memories began to flashback in my mind from one year ago. The first task was for me to get a room for the next two weeks. I won’t go into the knots and blots, but I will comment that Joyce helped assist me in getting the housing arrangements settled. The room The University accommodated me in the professor’s dormitory, which was comparable to hotel standards. I had the room to myself – two beds, a T.V, two desks, two chairs, a shower, toilet, a sink, patio, and air-conditioning. Obviously the room was designed for two people and probably could support 5 students with sleeping bags.
That night I had a small reunion with several of my SBS friends, which I met last year such as Wang Cheng, Alan, Joyce, and Xiao Fei. We had dinner together on the third floor of the cafeteria building, which has dozens of small restaurants to select from. It was absolutely wonderful to see some familiar faces in China who had become close friends just a year ago.
Latter than night, as Wang Cheng and Alan accompanied me back to my dorm, they told me that there was another foreign student from Seattle, Washington. I thought they were twisting my leg because I had been told earlier that the Bellevue Community College (BCC) study abroad group had decided not to come this year. It turned out inside the neighboring room was a 30-year old woman from West Seattle. Her name was Jennifer Yang. She name may came as a little of shock considering she has no ancestral connections to Asia. She had studied Mandarin for about 2 years with a major in Cultural Studies at BCC. She actually attended Professor Geiger’s Chinese class for three quarters, and it was networking through her that she decided to come to the Shanghai Business College (SBS). Coincidentally, she arrived last Friday, which was the same date I got into Shanghai. Her plans are to further her language studies as she has enrolled in SBS’s Mandarin course for 5 months. She tells me that she eventually wants to be a certified translator for a legal firm.
August 31st, 2009
Since I was familiar with the campus, I joined her on Monday morning, as she had not received an agenda for the week. We had breakfast at the cafeteria together, and then it was not clear where to go next. Jennifer only knew the teacher name, Zhong Laoshi. I thought it would be best for us to go to the administration building, which most of the teacher’s office were located. Once inside, I simply asked around for Zhong Laoshi’s office. We were finally told to go to the 4th floor. We met Zhong Laoshi in the foreign student’s office. It almost seemed as if she was expecting us to come. She had prepared to a two-week schedule and gave us a run down of what the upcoming events. The first week was getting acclimated to the school – learning where everything is on campus (food and library cards, cafeteria, library) and the surrounding area as well as all-day outings in the center of Shanghai. The second week was the official start of classes for the foreign students, waiguoren. Zhong Laoshi asked if I wanted to enroll in a class, but I politely said, “No Thanks,” due to my short stay. As she listened to my Chinese speaking ability, she said that I could stop by, sit in and participate in the class during my spare time for free. I think she realized I could help add to the class discussions.
Associate Professor Fang who works in the Dean of Foreign Affairs office also came to greet us. I had actually met Fang Laoshi last year as I did my study abroad with BCC (Bellevue Community Colllege). He was surprised to see me return just a year after, and even more impressed when I told him briefly about my adventures in Lijiang and Kunming.
Shortly afterwards, Zhong Laoshi took us to pay for the housing fee. I paid 800 RMB for two weeks, which comes to less than 60 RMB per night. It actually is a little cheaper than living at the Lijiang Green Education Center ironically. Or let me rethink that. I currently don’t have Internet access and meals are a separate cost.
Zhong Laoshi also gave us introduction to the campus such as getting a campus food and library card. As we toured the library, she told us that she was in a similar position to Jennifer in terms of getting accumulated to SBS. Zhong Laoshi was a new foreign language professor who had just graduated from a Shanghai University in English. Her goal as a new professor was improving the foreign language program.
The afternoon, I participated in a basketball tournament. I had been invited to join a few friends of Wang Cheng and Alan on the court. I was by no means well dressed. I had not brought any exercising attire from the states. My substitute was a cotton pair of shorts and a T-shirt with a pair of hiking shoes. I had the logo foreigner written all over me at that point. Besides the clothing mishap, it felt great to get some exercise, shoot some hoops, and release some stress. It was the first workout in China that I had a good sweat, which may sound disgusting; however, it felt like cleansing of my body.
September 1st, 2009
I should mention here that this is my second time visiting SBS. I had come to SBS last August with Geiger Laoshi and 20 other students for a three-week study. A cool fact is that the Bellevue Community College (BCC) is a sister-school of SBS, and this is year is the second anniversary. There were several reasons why I wanted to return to SBS. One of them was the possibility of meeting Geiger Laoshi and her class of students. Unfortunately, Feng Laoshi informed me that the BCC study abroad group had decided not to come this year. The exact reasons are too clear to me, but Jennifer said it was a cost issue and low enrollment. It came as a little of a shock, but there were many other things that I have had to look forward to such as reuniting with SBS students, going on all-day trips with the study abroad students, and fun events with Joyce and her family.
At 10:00 A.M, two SBS - English and Japanese major - students came knocking on our doors. There were a total of three study abroad students at SBS – Jennifer, a Japanese student, and me. The Japanese student had to have a direct translator because he had no prior language study. They accompanied us into the center of Shanghai since Jennifer and the Japanese student had yet to visit the heart of the city, ac city in which they would call home for the next 5 to 6 months.
Zhong Laoshi had let me know that I was more than welcomed to participate not just in the course that would start next week (September 7), but could also par-take this week in the orientation activities. This was a bonus because it was free of cost. I just tagged along.
I can remember on Sunday afternoon I was pondering what my schedule was going to be like for the next two weeks at SBS. I can honestly say I had no prior arrangements, and perhaps that was best thing I could have done. It has been amazing how everything has fallen into place and letting the currents sweep me off by my feet. It is just the ability to stay open-minded and spontaneous, which can be a powerful and useful skill in China. As a result, I actually had little downtime, go figure. ☺
As I have already mentioned, this is my second visit to city of Shanghai and the Shanghai Business School. Many of the all-day tours of the city this week were identical to that of last year. It felt like déjà vu all over again. It was a strange sensation to be walking on the exact brick road in Cheng Huang Miao or Renming Guangcheng as one year ago in Shanghai, China.
As we walked through Cheng Huang Miao, we stopped at a window store. There was a long line waiting to order Xiao Long Bao (small steamed meat-filled buns). This is a specialty of Shanghai, and it was obvious by the diversity and length of the crowd from foreigners to locals. That evening as we walked towards to The Bund on a narrow sidewalk, I can recall asking Xiao Fei, a sophomore majoring in English, what she thought of Shanghai? Her response came at a little bit of surprise. She first commented on how she would rarely see blue skies, but rather a film of grey smog. She also commented on the polluted water-quality of the Huangpujiang and Changjiang (Huang Pu River and the Yangzte River) and then talked about some of the great features of the city such as the Shanghai serving as the economic capital of China. What is interesting about her initial response was she was born and raised in Shanghai. Most people that I have met in China usually have nothing but positive remarks to say about their home city, but for her it was an issue that confronted her on a daily basis.
September 2nd, 2009
At 10:00 A.M, I met Joyce at the entrance gate of the Shanghai Business School. Joyce had invited me to join her, as she was back to visit her high school’s teachers. Her high school was called Fudan Shiyan Zhongxue. Ironically, the most prestigious university in Shanghai was called Fudan Daxue. I associated that connection with being an upscale school, which it turned out to be. In a cramped office on the 5th floor, I met a 12 other university students who had also come for a small reunion with their past teachers. They were also all high school friends of Joyce. I got to introduce myself to one of the teachers, and I specifically can recall her comment in Chinese. She said, “Only 2 years. How is it that you, Joyce, have been studying for 12 years and his Chinese is better than your English”? Now obvious she was being extraordinary polite, but I thought it was an endearing comment.
The afternoon, about 5 of Joyce’s high school buddies invited me to join them for game of basketball. We went to park after lunch that was within walking distance. The basketball court was especially well maintained. There was a small 5 RMB per person fee for entrance. My attire was certainly not appropriate with jeans, a Seattle University T-Shirt, and hiking shoes, but I couldn’t refuse. I also didn’t realize whom I was about to be going against. There was Monica, Steven, Fly, Joe, and Lihui. They all played aggressively. In prior basketball games, I had a height advantage, but that wasn’t the case here. Except for Steve, our height was about the same. Defense and my enduring energy level was my strength. As the person I guarded dribbled, sometimes I had fast enough reflexes to steal the ball. Even in the scorching heat, I still had an awesome time.
September 3rd, 2009
On Thursday afternoon, Jenny, the Japanese study abroad student, and three SBS student volunteers, and I went to Shanghai ShuCheng (Book Town Store). We met Zhong Laoshi there who would help them pick out their workbooks for the next several months. They looked through Xue Hanyu (Study Chinese section) workbooks, and based on the workbooks chosen, that is how the class would be structured. This was completely different from when I was at Yunnan University, where there were four classes to choose from. We were assigned textbooks for each class. Here at SBS, it seemed much more flexible partly because this was Zhong Laoshi’s first year as a teacher. In addition, neither of the study abroad students had taken the HSK proficiency test that helps determine one’s language level. As they search for suitable textbooks to study from, I browsed around and found three useful books. First was an English-to-Chinese interpretation vocabulary book that listed technical terms including those related to environmental concerns terms. It also had Chinese-English idioms. Another treasure was a bundle of 4th-grade short stories such as “The Wizard of Oz.” These books are unique in which one page is written in English and the other page is translated into Chinese. It’s win-win situation for both learners of Chinese and English. I have actually used the books several times with Joyce. She will read a few pages in English, and then I will read a page in Chinese. Lastly, I bought another dictionary that is designed specifically for HSK test takers. I should mention here that HSK is an international Chinese proficiency test put together by the Chinese Confucius Institute in Beijing. The dictionary is by far the most comprehensive Chinese-to-English wordbook I have found such as providing concrete examples of usage in Chinese and English and the measure word.
Before we decided to call it a day, we walked across the street to a foreign language bookstore. Zhong Laoshi wanted to buy an English book for a pleasure read and continue practicing her English. She asked Jennifer and me for any suggestions. As we browsed through the bookshelves, I surprisingly came across Lester Brown’s Plan 3.0. There was only one copy of it, and it looked a little worn down. I am commenting on this because last May in Washington D.C I met Lester Brown who is an advocate on the global environmental crisis and food security. Then I recalled Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman and asked a staff worker if they had it in stock. They said yes. I immediately rushed to grab as Zhong Laoshi and Jennifer were about to leave. I called out to her letting her known that I found a must-read book for her. I told her it would be a gift from me. I had only one request. As she reads through the book, she would be open to discussing some of the matters with her friends and colleagues.
September 4th, 2009
After Joyce’s 10:00 o’clock class, we departed SBS and took the subway back to her home. Relatively, it was a pretty quiet afternoon. We went to the supermarket across the street, which was the equivalent size of a U.S Fred Meyer. Most of the vegetables on the self are actually locally grown in the outskirts of the city, but there is a downside. A majority of farmers use pesticides and chemical fertilizers and have limited access to clean water sources for irrigation. Anyway for dinner, Joyce picked out Salmon. Supposedly, the family had a fancy for not just seafood, but imported Pacific Northwest seafood specialties. I will not comment much, except for the fact that eating habits of Joyce and the other 1.3 billion Chinese are continually striving for the food varieties and abundance of the West. It is certainly not a projection, it is happening now.
The rest of the afternoon was reading the book The Wizard of Oz. It was a dual translation. Joyce read a few pages in English and then assisted me as a read the Chinese version. I think it was one of the valuable lessons that I learned here in China is mutual cooperation.
September 5th, 2009
The highlight of Saturday was a visit to Fudan University. It is considered the most prestigious university in Shanghai and was established in 1905. To give a sense of the reputation, first consider some American universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Notre Dame, and John Hopkins. In China, the top 3 universities nationally are listed: Qinghua University, Beijing University, and then Fudan University. For anyone interested, you can visit the link at http://www.fudan.edu.cn/englishnew/about/history.html.
September 6th, 2009
As I had returned to SBS and unloaded my luggage in my dorm, Wang Cheng sent me a text me to meet him at the basketball court. We have planned to go out that afternoon to buy a basketball uniform. Wang Cheng knew I had only 5 days left at SBS and wanted to buy me a special gift that I could use to remember him and the university. I have to say it was most appropriate considering I had no workout clothes. Inside the store, there was only one uniform sized large enough to fit me – XXXXL. ☺ I didn’t realize I was a giant! I wore the outfit out onto the street when I caught the attention of almost every pedestrian. By the time we returned to the courts, everyone had left. We made a few free throws, and we decided to get a group together for a game tomorrow afternoon.
September 7th, 2009
Today was officially the first day of class for the study abroad students. The classroom was in building #2 rm. 410, the exact room I studied in last year at SBS. I assisted Jennifer as she read a dialogue, pronunciation, and grammar points, while Zhong Laoshi helped ChiBao study the fundamental characters of the Chinese language. When Zhong Laoshi was teaching, I would individually practice writing proper character strokes. It felt like the fall quarter at Seattle University had already begun.
In the afternoon, the basketball competition was underway. Andy and I were on opposite teams. Andy was a large, big-boned sophomore who could storm the court like a buffalo. I kid you not, and he was mine. I had the advantage on defense. I was skillful in my quick reflexes to block, and was my only method for draining his energy level. As we played, I felt part of the team wearing an official basketball uniform. The only thing missing was the shoes.
This evening, I have some exciting and abrupt news to share. On Thursday evening at 7:00 P.M September 10th, 2009, I will be giving a lecture on some micro- and macro- environmental problems and current practices to reduce the impact. The interesting part is that I decided to do this tonight. This is how it happened. As Wang Cheng accompanied me back to my room, I was talking with him about the interconnections of environmental issues, solutions and how they connect on a whole range of issues such as socioeconomic. As we discoursed, he remarked that I should give a presentation on SBS before I leave. I hesitated for a second because it was so sudden, but I quickly came to realize how excellent of an opportunity it is to reach out and be an advocate. I thought back to my conversation with Carol and Frances at Yunnan University and their suggestion to give a lecture. Here was my chance. I had the passion, but I would only have less than 3 days to put everything together. Wang Cheng encouraged that I wouldn’t have to do it alone. He would help me translate and get the details organized. After five minutes of deliberating, I looked Wang Cheng in the eyes, and I said, “Let’s do it.” At this point, I am currently working on my bullet-pointed script. Once I have it finished, I will post it for you to all look at. At this point, the message that I want to get across to the students to still stimulate more dialogue and conversation and interest in knowing more about these issues.
September 11th, 2009
This is the basic outline:
Macro Environmental Issues
• Climate Change
• Science of greenhouse effect
• Impacts of Climate Change
• Causes
o Population
o Technical and Scientific Revolution
o Relationship to Nature
• Deforestation
• Biodiversity Loss
• Throwaway Economy
Macro Potential Solutions
• Renewable Energy
o Solar Power
o Wind Power
o Geothermal
o Tidal Power
o Biogas
• Cradel-to-Cradel Economy
• Copenhagen Climate Conference 2009
Micro Internship in Lijiang
• Biogas – Environmental Protection and improving the living standards of Rural Villagers
Questions for Thought
Resources
The last four days have been a crunch on time, but more importantly it has been an experience that has given me powerful insight in the world of advocacy overseas.
I will start my recap from Tuesday morning. Wang Cheng inquired his hall monitor about reserving a classroom from 6:30 to 8:00 P.M on Thursday (September 10th, 2009). Andy, the hall monitor, said he would get back to us with building # and class # the following day. As that was happening, I attended the Chinese language class with Jennifer and Chibao. We had a different teacher that day. It switched from Zhong Laoshi to Yan Laoshi. Yan Laoshi taught the spoken language sessions of the 5-month language emersion class. I recalled as she was setting up at the podium and I first spoke to her in Chinese. It got it a little bit of reaction from her. She thought it was a native speaker initially, and then when she saw it coming from a foreigner’s tongue such as myself, it gave her a little shock. ☺
That afternoon, I began to conduct my research online trying to determine what points were the most important to highlight to an audience that has probably has little or no prior education on the subject. The primary sources I used were Lester Brown’s Plan 3.0 and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth as well as FAO (Forest Agricultural Organization) and IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change).
Tuesday late afternoon, Wang Cheng and I met to go over my ideas for the presentation and the layout. He thought the basic concept was great, and he just reminded me to make sure keep anything political related out of the speech. I told him that I would not even mention the name of any countries. My goal was to stay as far away from politics as possible.
After dinner with his roommates, we bought a large, green poster to help advertise the upcoming event. We returned to Wang Cheng’s dormitory, and all 3 of his roommates came to together to help write and translate the title and agenda of the presentation. It was awesome to watch them come together because they believed that this lecture was important. It was the first time SBS had a foreigner speak out about any type of environmental issues. In addition, I got to write a small introduction about myself in Chinese. Other students from down the hall came in to hear what all the commotion was about, interested to find a foreigner writing Chinese characters. As I look back, it was teamwork at it’s finest.
I met Wang Cheng again on Wednesday afternoon. I gave him a copy of my rough draft of the PPT and asked him if he could help me translate it into Chinese for the students who would be attending. I should call out here that Wang Cheng had only three hours of sleep that night before and had also other assignments to complete for his own class; however, he finished it by Thursday morning amazingly! I can’t say enough good things about Wang Cheng. I have to mention that at this point I was expecting an attendance of around 30 people. I also began writing up my transcript for each slide. That evening, I revised the slides once more. I had a total of 41 slides for an hour a half presentation.
Thursday was by far the craziest day I have experienced at SBS. Andy, the hall monitor, got a larger classroom assigned to me and the poster authorized by the student government. At 11:30 A.M, I met Wang Cheng in the cafeteria for an early lunch, and shortly afterwards we got the poster from Andy. We then went to the 2nd Teaching Building and got permission to take a desk out of a classroom to set up in front of the cafeteria. The timing here was key because at 12:00 students all get out of class, and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to get the word out. In my opinion, it was the perfect time for advertising. There was only one small problem, the wind was a little gusty, and students couldn’t clearly see the poster handing from the table. We had to improvise. I stood up on a chair and used my height as a major advantage. I held the poster high above the crowd calling out to the students “come over here and take a look…I will be giving a presentation tonight from 6:30 – 8:00 called The Environment and Me.” An already tall Caucasian foreigner standing on a chair all of a sudden caught the attention of everyone, and 1/3 of 600 students came to look at my poster. Wang Cheng helped me explain the details of the presentation in Chinese to the enlarging mass of students. I stood on that chair for about a 1-hour and a half holding that poster. That interesting part was that I didn’t have to do much to attract the attention of the students. I simply mentioned the title, subject, time, and place of the presentation. It seemed to be highly effective.
Later, I went over my transcript with Wang Cheng. This was very important because I would be giving the lecture in English, not Chinese obviously. The subject context was far about my language level. Therefore, I went through my speech with Wang Cheng so if there were any unfamiliar words that we was unfamiliar with for translating, he could look them up now. I would present the lecture in English and speak slowly, which can be a little challenging for a Millennial. ☺ If the students still didn’t understood what I was saying, Wang Cheng could assist me interpret.
I reconnected with him at 5:45 in the classroom to all the technical details worked out before the lecture. To my surprise, when I arrived 30 students were already seated doing their assignments waiting for my lecture. I think they realized that a large mass of students would be coming and so they wanted to make sure they get a seat in advance. A few minutes before 6:20, the 150 seats in the classroom were filled completely. However, students still were coming in looking for a place to seat. Wang Cheng, Liu Hui, Alan, and a few other students went looking for more chairs from other classrooms. We weren’t able to seat everyone, but by the time I started, I was speaking in front of about 200 students. For the next hour and half, I was the presenter. I have to admit my heart was pounding relentlessly; however, it was counterbalanced by the excitement at the opportunity to speak out on this cause that I was passionate about As I looked out at the audience, I couldn’t help but feel I sense of delight with such a large turnout. My own hope was that all the students would leave with a new sense of awareness about the environmental issues and for others it would serve as a catalyst to start conversations with friends and family.
The first 30 minutes of the lecture was only I speaking English. Wang Cheng approached me and told me to pause between each sentence and to speak louder into the small mike provided by the classroom. Even with these small changes, the over half of the audience did not understand what I was saying. Alan got an interesting mike setup for Wang Cheng. It was a head mike with a speaker attached to strap belt. Every 1 or 2 sentences, I would allow Wang Cheng translate to the best of his ability. There was only one problem. The sound quality from Wang Cheng’s speaker was poor and distracting. In addition, the audience did not want to listen to Wang Cheng; they only wanted me to speak whether they could understand or not. For most of them, this was an opportunity to hear a foreign speak English to them.
One of my slides was on our “Throwaway Economy.” I gave a small demonstration with comparing a tissue to handkerchief. I took a small pack of tissues and said this is “New.” Then I rubbed it around my face, crushed it up, and threw it on the ground next to the podium. Then I said that is “Used. It’s garbage.” All of a sudden, this small display got a strong reaction from the audience. A few people began to clap, and several minutes later, the entire audience was applauding. I also gave them an example of my Gatorade plastic bottles and explaining the 1,000 – 10,000 year life cycle it has. I tried to spark awareness that the concept of away does not work anyone (i.e. The Pacific Gyor). (Note to self – prompts are an effective way to cross language barriers)
By the end of the lecture, 10% or 20% of the audience had already left. After a round of applause, we had Q&A. This is where I had a chance to meet students who had a concern or interest in the topic, which was the most exciting part of the experience. One question was about renewable energy. One student asked, “China is so large and has the largest population in the world, is it even possible to use wind and solar power on such a large scale?” That was an excellent question. I gave her a list of suggested books, documentary films, and reports that would give a more complete answer than I could say in a minute or two. My short response to her was that it is possible if there is a high enough incentive to produce energy from renewables. Another student was Tom. He was a freshman at SBS and was an active volunteer with Green Peace and the World Wildlife Foundation. He said as a volunteer, he writes letters to large corporations requesting them to stop their destructive impact on the environment. I told him that as consumers, every dollar that we spend we are supporting one cause or another. I told him that being a smart and conscious consumer is very important. His main question was “China is a developing country, developing very quickly. Should China choose the economy or the environment?” I told him that it is a false choice in my opinion. Most environmentalists wouldn’t say growth is good. I said the question is not about growth or no growth, but what do we want to grow? I gave him a copy of my resource page and said a good book to start with is Cradle to Cradle.
There were about 15 or 20 students that had questions for me after my lecture and it was wonderful to be able to reach out to them and help get a dialogue started.
From Thursday evening to Friday morning, I got some thoughtful feedback from my friends who attended. For instance, the 70% to 80% of the audience had only one intention and that was to come and just listen to a foreigner speak English, not for the debrief on environmental problem. The second point was a technical difficulty issue with the sound system. Alan said that everyone in the back of the classroom could not hear my voice. It was too soft. In the future, I will make sure to do sound quality tests, which unfortunately did not cross my mind before the lecture. Another valuable observation was the audience was primarily freshmen. At a university where the bulk of the students study English, the language ability of freshman compared to junior is dramatically different. This means that much as 50% of my lecture was probably not intelligible. I was also reminded that these students have not studied any English environmental terminology, which made the situation a little more difficult. The key here is to pay close attention to your audience. Alan also suggested had a good suggestion. He said that next time I should upload a Chinese version of the presentation on the university server for students to have a chance to overlook the content ahead of time. This way they can come prepared with a clearer overview of what addressed.
I should also remark that Alan has uploaded my English transcript and the Chinese and English version of the presentation on the university network, which can now be downloaded for free. This way, students have access to the context and resources I suggested such as books, reports, and documentary films. Alan, Wang, Cheng and a few other students said they would help spread the word to the students who attended, which I hope will serve as a catalyst to continue discussions on macro- and micro-environmental issues that face our planet.
My last remark is that this was a learning experience. It was by no means perfect, but I have given me some valuable lessons that I can continue to improve on. Alan even suggested that the next time I come to Shanghai, he would be willing to help me get connect at Fudan University for another lecture. The journey of advocacy has only begun, and I want give a special thanks to my large support group of Chinese friends who without them that lecture would not have taken place. It was certainly not a one-man show, but a collection of encouraging, enthusiastic, and strong willed students.
I arrived in Shanghai’s Domestic Terminal at 5:30 P.M, and Joyce and her father who greeted me at the entrance. I was met by the father’s shofer to assist me with my laThe father had a shofer driving a Toyota SUV, I forgot the model. After a hour drive into the center of the city, we arrived at their apartment complex. Because their apartment was too small for a forth person, her family reserved a hotel room for me across the street, expenses paid, for both Friday and Saturday night. That evening, I met the entire family (Cai Baba - Father, Cai Mama - Mother, Cai Meimei - Joyce) had a dinner in celebration of my arrival. I felt I very welcomed. The parents are both Chemists, and Joyce is studying English, which she plans to use after graduation as an English teacher in Shanghai.
On Saturday, I got to experience one unforgettable event. I went to visit the SWFC. It is currently the tallest building in the world at 492 meters, which was just completed in 2008. Joyce parents accompanied us to the entrance, and then we left on our own as they had other plans for the afternoon. It was a breathtaking experience to overlook all of Shanghai including the bund and the 3,000 + skyscrapers that make up the horizon. It was truly surreal. The elevator ride was also unbelievable fast. From the basement, we reached the 97th floor, which was the SWFC Observatory, in a matter of 1 to 2 minutes. I felt like I was seated in an aircraft just after takeoff, except this was vertical motion rather than a gradual slope. I wouldn’t go in the details of the building, but it something worth reading about. The exterior and interior design, architectural structure, and state-of-the-art technologies are as futuristic as gets in the year 2009. Anyone interested can easily search it on Google.
In addition, the father and mother prepared an extravagant dinner when we returned. The father fancied seafood and cooked scallops, shrimp, and a California species of trout raised in China. There was a whole duck covered in soy sauce, black mushrooms, pork, white cabbage, and homemade southern-styled Jiaozi by Joyce and me. Wait a second; we also had about half a dozen bottles of Japanese branded beer. It was a wonderful, scrumptious treat! ☺
I will make one environmental comment, and it does have to do with food. It was interesting to notice the different in the consumption of meat with Joyce’s family than when I was in Lijiang. For instances, as we had dinner the first night, they ordered approximately … 4 dishes of duck, beef, and pork. I can remember when I ate in Lijiang, I was picking through my rice bowl for any miniscule pieces. I think the amount of meat I ate in that one dinner was equivalent to about one week of meat for the entire 5 LGEC group. The point here is that I got to observe the difference between rural and urban eating habits and also see the connection between affluence and consumption of meat.
August 30th, 2009
Joyce and I hitched a ride with the father’s shofer to the Shanghai Airport to drop of her father who was leaving Da Lian and Chengdu for work-related meetings. Supposedly, Cai Baba frequently traveled domestically across China. I had realized how fortunate I was to have meet Joyce’s father that weekend and have her entire family give me a tour of Shanghai.
The shofer arrived at the entrance of the Shanghai Business University at 3:00 P.M., and memories began to flashback in my mind from one year ago. The first task was for me to get a room for the next two weeks. I won’t go into the knots and blots, but I will comment that Joyce helped assist me in getting the housing arrangements settled. The room The University accommodated me in the professor’s dormitory, which was comparable to hotel standards. I had the room to myself – two beds, a T.V, two desks, two chairs, a shower, toilet, a sink, patio, and air-conditioning. Obviously the room was designed for two people and probably could support 5 students with sleeping bags.
That night I had a small reunion with several of my SBS friends, which I met last year such as Wang Cheng, Alan, Joyce, and Xiao Fei. We had dinner together on the third floor of the cafeteria building, which has dozens of small restaurants to select from. It was absolutely wonderful to see some familiar faces in China who had become close friends just a year ago.
Latter than night, as Wang Cheng and Alan accompanied me back to my dorm, they told me that there was another foreign student from Seattle, Washington. I thought they were twisting my leg because I had been told earlier that the Bellevue Community College (BCC) study abroad group had decided not to come this year. It turned out inside the neighboring room was a 30-year old woman from West Seattle. Her name was Jennifer Yang. She name may came as a little of shock considering she has no ancestral connections to Asia. She had studied Mandarin for about 2 years with a major in Cultural Studies at BCC. She actually attended Professor Geiger’s Chinese class for three quarters, and it was networking through her that she decided to come to the Shanghai Business College (SBS). Coincidentally, she arrived last Friday, which was the same date I got into Shanghai. Her plans are to further her language studies as she has enrolled in SBS’s Mandarin course for 5 months. She tells me that she eventually wants to be a certified translator for a legal firm.
August 31st, 2009
Since I was familiar with the campus, I joined her on Monday morning, as she had not received an agenda for the week. We had breakfast at the cafeteria together, and then it was not clear where to go next. Jennifer only knew the teacher name, Zhong Laoshi. I thought it would be best for us to go to the administration building, which most of the teacher’s office were located. Once inside, I simply asked around for Zhong Laoshi’s office. We were finally told to go to the 4th floor. We met Zhong Laoshi in the foreign student’s office. It almost seemed as if she was expecting us to come. She had prepared to a two-week schedule and gave us a run down of what the upcoming events. The first week was getting acclimated to the school – learning where everything is on campus (food and library cards, cafeteria, library) and the surrounding area as well as all-day outings in the center of Shanghai. The second week was the official start of classes for the foreign students, waiguoren. Zhong Laoshi asked if I wanted to enroll in a class, but I politely said, “No Thanks,” due to my short stay. As she listened to my Chinese speaking ability, she said that I could stop by, sit in and participate in the class during my spare time for free. I think she realized I could help add to the class discussions.
Associate Professor Fang who works in the Dean of Foreign Affairs office also came to greet us. I had actually met Fang Laoshi last year as I did my study abroad with BCC (Bellevue Community Colllege). He was surprised to see me return just a year after, and even more impressed when I told him briefly about my adventures in Lijiang and Kunming.
Shortly afterwards, Zhong Laoshi took us to pay for the housing fee. I paid 800 RMB for two weeks, which comes to less than 60 RMB per night. It actually is a little cheaper than living at the Lijiang Green Education Center ironically. Or let me rethink that. I currently don’t have Internet access and meals are a separate cost.
Zhong Laoshi also gave us introduction to the campus such as getting a campus food and library card. As we toured the library, she told us that she was in a similar position to Jennifer in terms of getting accumulated to SBS. Zhong Laoshi was a new foreign language professor who had just graduated from a Shanghai University in English. Her goal as a new professor was improving the foreign language program.
The afternoon, I participated in a basketball tournament. I had been invited to join a few friends of Wang Cheng and Alan on the court. I was by no means well dressed. I had not brought any exercising attire from the states. My substitute was a cotton pair of shorts and a T-shirt with a pair of hiking shoes. I had the logo foreigner written all over me at that point. Besides the clothing mishap, it felt great to get some exercise, shoot some hoops, and release some stress. It was the first workout in China that I had a good sweat, which may sound disgusting; however, it felt like cleansing of my body.
September 1st, 2009
I should mention here that this is my second time visiting SBS. I had come to SBS last August with Geiger Laoshi and 20 other students for a three-week study. A cool fact is that the Bellevue Community College (BCC) is a sister-school of SBS, and this is year is the second anniversary. There were several reasons why I wanted to return to SBS. One of them was the possibility of meeting Geiger Laoshi and her class of students. Unfortunately, Feng Laoshi informed me that the BCC study abroad group had decided not to come this year. The exact reasons are too clear to me, but Jennifer said it was a cost issue and low enrollment. It came as a little of a shock, but there were many other things that I have had to look forward to such as reuniting with SBS students, going on all-day trips with the study abroad students, and fun events with Joyce and her family.
At 10:00 A.M, two SBS - English and Japanese major - students came knocking on our doors. There were a total of three study abroad students at SBS – Jennifer, a Japanese student, and me. The Japanese student had to have a direct translator because he had no prior language study. They accompanied us into the center of Shanghai since Jennifer and the Japanese student had yet to visit the heart of the city, ac city in which they would call home for the next 5 to 6 months.
Zhong Laoshi had let me know that I was more than welcomed to participate not just in the course that would start next week (September 7), but could also par-take this week in the orientation activities. This was a bonus because it was free of cost. I just tagged along.
I can remember on Sunday afternoon I was pondering what my schedule was going to be like for the next two weeks at SBS. I can honestly say I had no prior arrangements, and perhaps that was best thing I could have done. It has been amazing how everything has fallen into place and letting the currents sweep me off by my feet. It is just the ability to stay open-minded and spontaneous, which can be a powerful and useful skill in China. As a result, I actually had little downtime, go figure. ☺
As I have already mentioned, this is my second visit to city of Shanghai and the Shanghai Business School. Many of the all-day tours of the city this week were identical to that of last year. It felt like déjà vu all over again. It was a strange sensation to be walking on the exact brick road in Cheng Huang Miao or Renming Guangcheng as one year ago in Shanghai, China.
As we walked through Cheng Huang Miao, we stopped at a window store. There was a long line waiting to order Xiao Long Bao (small steamed meat-filled buns). This is a specialty of Shanghai, and it was obvious by the diversity and length of the crowd from foreigners to locals. That evening as we walked towards to The Bund on a narrow sidewalk, I can recall asking Xiao Fei, a sophomore majoring in English, what she thought of Shanghai? Her response came at a little bit of surprise. She first commented on how she would rarely see blue skies, but rather a film of grey smog. She also commented on the polluted water-quality of the Huangpujiang and Changjiang (Huang Pu River and the Yangzte River) and then talked about some of the great features of the city such as the Shanghai serving as the economic capital of China. What is interesting about her initial response was she was born and raised in Shanghai. Most people that I have met in China usually have nothing but positive remarks to say about their home city, but for her it was an issue that confronted her on a daily basis.
September 2nd, 2009
At 10:00 A.M, I met Joyce at the entrance gate of the Shanghai Business School. Joyce had invited me to join her, as she was back to visit her high school’s teachers. Her high school was called Fudan Shiyan Zhongxue. Ironically, the most prestigious university in Shanghai was called Fudan Daxue. I associated that connection with being an upscale school, which it turned out to be. In a cramped office on the 5th floor, I met a 12 other university students who had also come for a small reunion with their past teachers. They were also all high school friends of Joyce. I got to introduce myself to one of the teachers, and I specifically can recall her comment in Chinese. She said, “Only 2 years. How is it that you, Joyce, have been studying for 12 years and his Chinese is better than your English”? Now obvious she was being extraordinary polite, but I thought it was an endearing comment.
The afternoon, about 5 of Joyce’s high school buddies invited me to join them for game of basketball. We went to park after lunch that was within walking distance. The basketball court was especially well maintained. There was a small 5 RMB per person fee for entrance. My attire was certainly not appropriate with jeans, a Seattle University T-Shirt, and hiking shoes, but I couldn’t refuse. I also didn’t realize whom I was about to be going against. There was Monica, Steven, Fly, Joe, and Lihui. They all played aggressively. In prior basketball games, I had a height advantage, but that wasn’t the case here. Except for Steve, our height was about the same. Defense and my enduring energy level was my strength. As the person I guarded dribbled, sometimes I had fast enough reflexes to steal the ball. Even in the scorching heat, I still had an awesome time.
September 3rd, 2009
On Thursday afternoon, Jenny, the Japanese study abroad student, and three SBS student volunteers, and I went to Shanghai ShuCheng (Book Town Store). We met Zhong Laoshi there who would help them pick out their workbooks for the next several months. They looked through Xue Hanyu (Study Chinese section) workbooks, and based on the workbooks chosen, that is how the class would be structured. This was completely different from when I was at Yunnan University, where there were four classes to choose from. We were assigned textbooks for each class. Here at SBS, it seemed much more flexible partly because this was Zhong Laoshi’s first year as a teacher. In addition, neither of the study abroad students had taken the HSK proficiency test that helps determine one’s language level. As they search for suitable textbooks to study from, I browsed around and found three useful books. First was an English-to-Chinese interpretation vocabulary book that listed technical terms including those related to environmental concerns terms. It also had Chinese-English idioms. Another treasure was a bundle of 4th-grade short stories such as “The Wizard of Oz.” These books are unique in which one page is written in English and the other page is translated into Chinese. It’s win-win situation for both learners of Chinese and English. I have actually used the books several times with Joyce. She will read a few pages in English, and then I will read a page in Chinese. Lastly, I bought another dictionary that is designed specifically for HSK test takers. I should mention here that HSK is an international Chinese proficiency test put together by the Chinese Confucius Institute in Beijing. The dictionary is by far the most comprehensive Chinese-to-English wordbook I have found such as providing concrete examples of usage in Chinese and English and the measure word.
Before we decided to call it a day, we walked across the street to a foreign language bookstore. Zhong Laoshi wanted to buy an English book for a pleasure read and continue practicing her English. She asked Jennifer and me for any suggestions. As we browsed through the bookshelves, I surprisingly came across Lester Brown’s Plan 3.0. There was only one copy of it, and it looked a little worn down. I am commenting on this because last May in Washington D.C I met Lester Brown who is an advocate on the global environmental crisis and food security. Then I recalled Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman and asked a staff worker if they had it in stock. They said yes. I immediately rushed to grab as Zhong Laoshi and Jennifer were about to leave. I called out to her letting her known that I found a must-read book for her. I told her it would be a gift from me. I had only one request. As she reads through the book, she would be open to discussing some of the matters with her friends and colleagues.
September 4th, 2009
After Joyce’s 10:00 o’clock class, we departed SBS and took the subway back to her home. Relatively, it was a pretty quiet afternoon. We went to the supermarket across the street, which was the equivalent size of a U.S Fred Meyer. Most of the vegetables on the self are actually locally grown in the outskirts of the city, but there is a downside. A majority of farmers use pesticides and chemical fertilizers and have limited access to clean water sources for irrigation. Anyway for dinner, Joyce picked out Salmon. Supposedly, the family had a fancy for not just seafood, but imported Pacific Northwest seafood specialties. I will not comment much, except for the fact that eating habits of Joyce and the other 1.3 billion Chinese are continually striving for the food varieties and abundance of the West. It is certainly not a projection, it is happening now.
The rest of the afternoon was reading the book The Wizard of Oz. It was a dual translation. Joyce read a few pages in English and then assisted me as a read the Chinese version. I think it was one of the valuable lessons that I learned here in China is mutual cooperation.
September 5th, 2009
The highlight of Saturday was a visit to Fudan University. It is considered the most prestigious university in Shanghai and was established in 1905. To give a sense of the reputation, first consider some American universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Notre Dame, and John Hopkins. In China, the top 3 universities nationally are listed: Qinghua University, Beijing University, and then Fudan University. For anyone interested, you can visit the link at http://www.fudan.edu.cn/englishnew/about/history.html.
September 6th, 2009
As I had returned to SBS and unloaded my luggage in my dorm, Wang Cheng sent me a text me to meet him at the basketball court. We have planned to go out that afternoon to buy a basketball uniform. Wang Cheng knew I had only 5 days left at SBS and wanted to buy me a special gift that I could use to remember him and the university. I have to say it was most appropriate considering I had no workout clothes. Inside the store, there was only one uniform sized large enough to fit me – XXXXL. ☺ I didn’t realize I was a giant! I wore the outfit out onto the street when I caught the attention of almost every pedestrian. By the time we returned to the courts, everyone had left. We made a few free throws, and we decided to get a group together for a game tomorrow afternoon.
September 7th, 2009
Today was officially the first day of class for the study abroad students. The classroom was in building #2 rm. 410, the exact room I studied in last year at SBS. I assisted Jennifer as she read a dialogue, pronunciation, and grammar points, while Zhong Laoshi helped ChiBao study the fundamental characters of the Chinese language. When Zhong Laoshi was teaching, I would individually practice writing proper character strokes. It felt like the fall quarter at Seattle University had already begun.
In the afternoon, the basketball competition was underway. Andy and I were on opposite teams. Andy was a large, big-boned sophomore who could storm the court like a buffalo. I kid you not, and he was mine. I had the advantage on defense. I was skillful in my quick reflexes to block, and was my only method for draining his energy level. As we played, I felt part of the team wearing an official basketball uniform. The only thing missing was the shoes.
This evening, I have some exciting and abrupt news to share. On Thursday evening at 7:00 P.M September 10th, 2009, I will be giving a lecture on some micro- and macro- environmental problems and current practices to reduce the impact. The interesting part is that I decided to do this tonight. This is how it happened. As Wang Cheng accompanied me back to my room, I was talking with him about the interconnections of environmental issues, solutions and how they connect on a whole range of issues such as socioeconomic. As we discoursed, he remarked that I should give a presentation on SBS before I leave. I hesitated for a second because it was so sudden, but I quickly came to realize how excellent of an opportunity it is to reach out and be an advocate. I thought back to my conversation with Carol and Frances at Yunnan University and their suggestion to give a lecture. Here was my chance. I had the passion, but I would only have less than 3 days to put everything together. Wang Cheng encouraged that I wouldn’t have to do it alone. He would help me translate and get the details organized. After five minutes of deliberating, I looked Wang Cheng in the eyes, and I said, “Let’s do it.” At this point, I am currently working on my bullet-pointed script. Once I have it finished, I will post it for you to all look at. At this point, the message that I want to get across to the students to still stimulate more dialogue and conversation and interest in knowing more about these issues.
September 11th, 2009
This is the basic outline:
Macro Environmental Issues
• Climate Change
• Science of greenhouse effect
• Impacts of Climate Change
• Causes
o Population
o Technical and Scientific Revolution
o Relationship to Nature
• Deforestation
• Biodiversity Loss
• Throwaway Economy
Macro Potential Solutions
• Renewable Energy
o Solar Power
o Wind Power
o Geothermal
o Tidal Power
o Biogas
• Cradel-to-Cradel Economy
• Copenhagen Climate Conference 2009
Micro Internship in Lijiang
• Biogas – Environmental Protection and improving the living standards of Rural Villagers
Questions for Thought
Resources
The last four days have been a crunch on time, but more importantly it has been an experience that has given me powerful insight in the world of advocacy overseas.
I will start my recap from Tuesday morning. Wang Cheng inquired his hall monitor about reserving a classroom from 6:30 to 8:00 P.M on Thursday (September 10th, 2009). Andy, the hall monitor, said he would get back to us with building # and class # the following day. As that was happening, I attended the Chinese language class with Jennifer and Chibao. We had a different teacher that day. It switched from Zhong Laoshi to Yan Laoshi. Yan Laoshi taught the spoken language sessions of the 5-month language emersion class. I recalled as she was setting up at the podium and I first spoke to her in Chinese. It got it a little bit of reaction from her. She thought it was a native speaker initially, and then when she saw it coming from a foreigner’s tongue such as myself, it gave her a little shock. ☺
That afternoon, I began to conduct my research online trying to determine what points were the most important to highlight to an audience that has probably has little or no prior education on the subject. The primary sources I used were Lester Brown’s Plan 3.0 and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth as well as FAO (Forest Agricultural Organization) and IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change).
Tuesday late afternoon, Wang Cheng and I met to go over my ideas for the presentation and the layout. He thought the basic concept was great, and he just reminded me to make sure keep anything political related out of the speech. I told him that I would not even mention the name of any countries. My goal was to stay as far away from politics as possible.
After dinner with his roommates, we bought a large, green poster to help advertise the upcoming event. We returned to Wang Cheng’s dormitory, and all 3 of his roommates came to together to help write and translate the title and agenda of the presentation. It was awesome to watch them come together because they believed that this lecture was important. It was the first time SBS had a foreigner speak out about any type of environmental issues. In addition, I got to write a small introduction about myself in Chinese. Other students from down the hall came in to hear what all the commotion was about, interested to find a foreigner writing Chinese characters. As I look back, it was teamwork at it’s finest.
I met Wang Cheng again on Wednesday afternoon. I gave him a copy of my rough draft of the PPT and asked him if he could help me translate it into Chinese for the students who would be attending. I should call out here that Wang Cheng had only three hours of sleep that night before and had also other assignments to complete for his own class; however, he finished it by Thursday morning amazingly! I can’t say enough good things about Wang Cheng. I have to mention that at this point I was expecting an attendance of around 30 people. I also began writing up my transcript for each slide. That evening, I revised the slides once more. I had a total of 41 slides for an hour a half presentation.
Thursday was by far the craziest day I have experienced at SBS. Andy, the hall monitor, got a larger classroom assigned to me and the poster authorized by the student government. At 11:30 A.M, I met Wang Cheng in the cafeteria for an early lunch, and shortly afterwards we got the poster from Andy. We then went to the 2nd Teaching Building and got permission to take a desk out of a classroom to set up in front of the cafeteria. The timing here was key because at 12:00 students all get out of class, and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to get the word out. In my opinion, it was the perfect time for advertising. There was only one small problem, the wind was a little gusty, and students couldn’t clearly see the poster handing from the table. We had to improvise. I stood up on a chair and used my height as a major advantage. I held the poster high above the crowd calling out to the students “come over here and take a look…I will be giving a presentation tonight from 6:30 – 8:00 called The Environment and Me.” An already tall Caucasian foreigner standing on a chair all of a sudden caught the attention of everyone, and 1/3 of 600 students came to look at my poster. Wang Cheng helped me explain the details of the presentation in Chinese to the enlarging mass of students. I stood on that chair for about a 1-hour and a half holding that poster. That interesting part was that I didn’t have to do much to attract the attention of the students. I simply mentioned the title, subject, time, and place of the presentation. It seemed to be highly effective.
Later, I went over my transcript with Wang Cheng. This was very important because I would be giving the lecture in English, not Chinese obviously. The subject context was far about my language level. Therefore, I went through my speech with Wang Cheng so if there were any unfamiliar words that we was unfamiliar with for translating, he could look them up now. I would present the lecture in English and speak slowly, which can be a little challenging for a Millennial. ☺ If the students still didn’t understood what I was saying, Wang Cheng could assist me interpret.
I reconnected with him at 5:45 in the classroom to all the technical details worked out before the lecture. To my surprise, when I arrived 30 students were already seated doing their assignments waiting for my lecture. I think they realized that a large mass of students would be coming and so they wanted to make sure they get a seat in advance. A few minutes before 6:20, the 150 seats in the classroom were filled completely. However, students still were coming in looking for a place to seat. Wang Cheng, Liu Hui, Alan, and a few other students went looking for more chairs from other classrooms. We weren’t able to seat everyone, but by the time I started, I was speaking in front of about 200 students. For the next hour and half, I was the presenter. I have to admit my heart was pounding relentlessly; however, it was counterbalanced by the excitement at the opportunity to speak out on this cause that I was passionate about As I looked out at the audience, I couldn’t help but feel I sense of delight with such a large turnout. My own hope was that all the students would leave with a new sense of awareness about the environmental issues and for others it would serve as a catalyst to start conversations with friends and family.
The first 30 minutes of the lecture was only I speaking English. Wang Cheng approached me and told me to pause between each sentence and to speak louder into the small mike provided by the classroom. Even with these small changes, the over half of the audience did not understand what I was saying. Alan got an interesting mike setup for Wang Cheng. It was a head mike with a speaker attached to strap belt. Every 1 or 2 sentences, I would allow Wang Cheng translate to the best of his ability. There was only one problem. The sound quality from Wang Cheng’s speaker was poor and distracting. In addition, the audience did not want to listen to Wang Cheng; they only wanted me to speak whether they could understand or not. For most of them, this was an opportunity to hear a foreign speak English to them.
One of my slides was on our “Throwaway Economy.” I gave a small demonstration with comparing a tissue to handkerchief. I took a small pack of tissues and said this is “New.” Then I rubbed it around my face, crushed it up, and threw it on the ground next to the podium. Then I said that is “Used. It’s garbage.” All of a sudden, this small display got a strong reaction from the audience. A few people began to clap, and several minutes later, the entire audience was applauding. I also gave them an example of my Gatorade plastic bottles and explaining the 1,000 – 10,000 year life cycle it has. I tried to spark awareness that the concept of away does not work anyone (i.e. The Pacific Gyor). (Note to self – prompts are an effective way to cross language barriers)
By the end of the lecture, 10% or 20% of the audience had already left. After a round of applause, we had Q&A. This is where I had a chance to meet students who had a concern or interest in the topic, which was the most exciting part of the experience. One question was about renewable energy. One student asked, “China is so large and has the largest population in the world, is it even possible to use wind and solar power on such a large scale?” That was an excellent question. I gave her a list of suggested books, documentary films, and reports that would give a more complete answer than I could say in a minute or two. My short response to her was that it is possible if there is a high enough incentive to produce energy from renewables. Another student was Tom. He was a freshman at SBS and was an active volunteer with Green Peace and the World Wildlife Foundation. He said as a volunteer, he writes letters to large corporations requesting them to stop their destructive impact on the environment. I told him that as consumers, every dollar that we spend we are supporting one cause or another. I told him that being a smart and conscious consumer is very important. His main question was “China is a developing country, developing very quickly. Should China choose the economy or the environment?” I told him that it is a false choice in my opinion. Most environmentalists wouldn’t say growth is good. I said the question is not about growth or no growth, but what do we want to grow? I gave him a copy of my resource page and said a good book to start with is Cradle to Cradle.
There were about 15 or 20 students that had questions for me after my lecture and it was wonderful to be able to reach out to them and help get a dialogue started.
From Thursday evening to Friday morning, I got some thoughtful feedback from my friends who attended. For instance, the 70% to 80% of the audience had only one intention and that was to come and just listen to a foreigner speak English, not for the debrief on environmental problem. The second point was a technical difficulty issue with the sound system. Alan said that everyone in the back of the classroom could not hear my voice. It was too soft. In the future, I will make sure to do sound quality tests, which unfortunately did not cross my mind before the lecture. Another valuable observation was the audience was primarily freshmen. At a university where the bulk of the students study English, the language ability of freshman compared to junior is dramatically different. This means that much as 50% of my lecture was probably not intelligible. I was also reminded that these students have not studied any English environmental terminology, which made the situation a little more difficult. The key here is to pay close attention to your audience. Alan also suggested had a good suggestion. He said that next time I should upload a Chinese version of the presentation on the university server for students to have a chance to overlook the content ahead of time. This way they can come prepared with a clearer overview of what addressed.
I should also remark that Alan has uploaded my English transcript and the Chinese and English version of the presentation on the university network, which can now be downloaded for free. This way, students have access to the context and resources I suggested such as books, reports, and documentary films. Alan, Wang, Cheng and a few other students said they would help spread the word to the students who attended, which I hope will serve as a catalyst to continue discussions on macro- and micro-environmental issues that face our planet.
My last remark is that this was a learning experience. It was by no means perfect, but I have given me some valuable lessons that I can continue to improve on. Alan even suggested that the next time I come to Shanghai, he would be willing to help me get connect at Fudan University for another lecture. The journey of advocacy has only begun, and I want give a special thanks to my large support group of Chinese friends who without them that lecture would not have taken place. It was certainly not a one-man show, but a collection of encouraging, enthusiastic, and strong willed students.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Kunming to Shanghai
Dear Friends
August 3rd, 2009
I was especially excited for this Monday morning. This was the first day of enrollment in the Yunnan University’s HSK class. The classes were scheduled to begin at 8:30 A.M. The administrator in the office informed me of the four different language level classes offered. I was assigned to the second level; however, I was told that if I thought it was too difficult or easy I could switch classes. I initially tried out the intermediate course. There were two other students besides me in a very compact classroom. The male teacher was very friendly and had interesting subjects such as ethnic minorities and dialect. I also felt very comfortable with my language ability in terms of listening and vocabulary. However, I thought being here in China is the perfect time to get out of my comfort zone, so I decided to pick up my stuff and walk down the hall to the next level up. I should mention here that the language schedule is from 8:30 A.M to 12:30 P.M. The time is split into two parts. The first two hours, I met an older female teacher, Zhou Laoshi. She was intimidating at first. She spoke at a pace that also made it almost impossible to understand her clearly. Part of this reason was that she was referencing a dialogue and new, unfamiliar vocabulary that I had not reviewed. I didn’t even have the textbook. I basically walked in half blind folded. She also couldn’t speak a word of English, so to get clarification was to have an explanation in Chinese. The second teacher was male and this class went much smoother. Even though I was without a textbook, my classmate let me look at his as we covered a new lesson’s vocabulary and dialogue. In addition, his style was not lecture based, but very interactive with opportunities for us to come up to the front of the room to perform real-life skits. The classroom was very popular; almost every seat was filled. However, the total number of international students that were participating in the program was no more than 20-30. The students had a diverse background: Italy, France, South Korea, Thailand, England, and the U.S.A. I associated the small enrollment to the current financial crisis, which has made everyone more finically conscious. In addition, the class sizes were fairly small – no more than 8 to 10 students per class.
The afternoon, Dean, my roommate, and I went to the Yunnan University Supermarket to buy some writing supplies – notepads, mechanical pencils, pens, and a pocket-sized Chinese-English Dictionary.
Inside the courtyard of the foreign student dormitory, there is a bookstore specifically for HSK students. I had decided to commit to the third-level Chinese language course, and I received three textbooks – oral, listening, and the primary textbook for the class.
That late afternoon, I over exerted myself studying and preparing. The two classes combined had introduced a total of 80 new characters. I decided to take my notepad and write each character 5 to 6 times with English definitions. This was a several hour project I had put on myself, and furthermore my teacher did not require it. My thinking was that I wanted to get back into the habit of writing characters. There was homework that had also been assigned. I went over to my newly met Italian friends dorm where I spent the last evening working with them on the assignment. Simply put, it is school in August with a language twist.
August 4, 2009
Monday night, we set Dean’s cell phone alarm at 6:30 A.M, so we would have time to go to the Yunnan University’s cafeteria before class. The class layout was similar to Monday. We went over our assigned homework and reviewed the grammar from lesson three. We also went into the next lesson (4) that had 50 new characters. The pace of the class is very rapid. To compare, at Seattle University we complete a lesson about every week or two. I think a good metaphor would be comparing the speed of a car to a plane. We were notified that the second teacher would not be arriving due to the unanticipated weather; hence, we got out of class early. I spent it reviewing the new lesson and marking the words in my dictionary.
The prior weekend and Monday, I was very fortunate with gorgeous blue skies; however, that came to end with a dark overcast weather. During class, it began pouring cats and dogs with lighting sticks directly overhead. Kunming is a city that is encompassed by mountain ranges, which means that thunderstorms can sometimes become stagnant overhead. The mountain ranges can act as a glass bowl that holds water or weather fronts.
After lunch with the South Korean students, Dean and I returned back to the dorm and took a highly needed nap.
At 4:00 P.M, I went with a South Korean Professor studying Mandarin to go meet some other foreign students at a distant bus stop, which we planned to go to a popular tourist destination. Long story short, the students and teacher we planned to meet never showed. It actually turned out that there was a miscommunication about the meeting place.
In the evening, I studied with the two Italian students – Lorenzo and Antonio. There were many new and unfamiliar characters, and we went over the dialogue together. At this point, I would say that we have become a study group. I am very happy that I have met them; they have been very helpful through this learning curve period.
August 5, 2009
By Wednesday, I began to get into a routine of life in YNU (Yunnan University). On the topic of food, a student has two options to choose from – eat on-campus or off-campus limian chifan haishi waimian chifan. At the start of the language program, we were given 100 RMB campus cards that could be used at the campus cafeteria and supermarket. The advantage to the Shitang Cafeteria was the unbeatably cheap price. The food in my opinion was as good as the price I paid. The first few days, Dean and I ate there for almost every meal. It became a struggle for me personally, and started craving either some real Chinese food or a little Western food. Obvious, eating at Shitang was not a habit that I grew into.
For breakfast, we went to two small restaurants (more like fast food Chinese bars). We bought on occasion an oily break stick (that is that actually translation) and an egg waffle, jidanbing. This is great as to have other options than only eating hard-boiled eggs and the rice version of oatmeal, which can get old fast.
I also got a feel for the classroom routine. This is the layout of our schedule.
M T W TH F
Chinese Middle Level General Class 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Morning 8:30 – 10:10
发展汉语中级汉语
Spoken Chinese – Pre-Intermediate 1, 4 Morning 10:20 – 12:00
汉语口语 提高
Listen Comprehension Chinese 2, 5 Morning 10:20 – 12:00
汉语听力教程 第二册
I will point out that the most difficult subject is the listening comprehension and answering the multiple-choice questions. This is partly due to the extensive amount of new characters we have learned, but I have been slow to catch up. The listening aspect has always been a weakness of mine, but that just motivates me to study and listen more concretely. I explained to the teacher after class about some of my challenges and what I feel I need extra help on to take my language skills to the next level. She first told me that my obstacles were not unique; that everyone is class had similar problems. She also reminded me that everyone in the class had studied the language for 3 years or longer; I was the exception at 2 years. I asked here is she would be willing to meet me after class to help answer some of my questions and practice speaking some of the dialogues. She told me that she would not be able to meet everyday, but she would meet me tomorrow.
It is also amazing how 3.5 hours of studying can feel like a intensive mind workout. After lunch, I would feel utterly exhausted. Some days I took an afternoon nap just to recuperate. For instance, I would crash from 1:30 to 6:00 P.M.
That evening, I met Lorenzo outside the lobby, and joined him, as he was about to go shopping for some fruits and another easy digestible food products for Antonio. Supposedly, Antonio was having severe stomachaches.
As he returned back to the dorm, I went to the Shitang Cafeteria for dinner. I met an undergraduate student studying at Kunming Normal University, which was directly across the street. We spent the late evening discussing my major and her family in Northern China and her studies in Business Management. One topic that was actively discussed was how almost everything in Kunming, perhaps China, was wrapped, bottled, sealed in plastic. I explained why recycling was not a complete win-win situation, because most of the plastics manufactured were unrecyclable. I explained a little about the Texas-sized gyre in the Pacific Ocean full of plastic and the ripple effects up the food chain. We also discussed China’s shortage of clean water. It was a fascinating conversation, but it appeared that she had more or less a little understand of the topic, but was very interested in learning more about it and my thoughts.
I returned to the lobby and met two faculty professors, Xie Laoshi and Yang Laoshi. Yang Laoshi was the first teacher I met on Monday morning. His class was the one that I switched out of, but he still remained a friendly person that I saw occasional across campus and around the dormitory. The two professors were managing a foreign study abroad group from Oklahoma. When I heard Oklahoma mentioned I was a little surprised by the state. You don’t hear Oklahoma having a large Chinese population, but I think it illustrated that the Chinese cultural and language has caught a broad interest from even the most agricultural section of the U.S. In my opinion, it is becoming a language without borders. The professors were making the final arrangements for the students as they planned to travel to Dali around 8 A.M the following day.
I saw Lorenzo come down the stairs into the hallway and asked where he was going (the most common question foreign abroad students ask each other). He said he was going to go get dinner, and asked if I could accompany him to a nearby restaurant that I suggested.
Lorenzo and I still had not even began our homework assignments and decided to do it when we returned back to the dorm. However, it turned out that Antonio flu-like symptoms were getting worse. I few minutes after we returned, Antonio almost passed out in the bathroom. At that point we decided it was necessary to go to the Kunming Hospital to have him checked out. I got a taxi pulled up for them to the entrance and decided to accompany them to the emergency room since I had some experience back in Lijiang. I knew the routine of payment first, doctor’s office, blood draw, X-Ray, return to doctor’s office for prognosis, treatment recommendations, and prescriptions, and finally to the pharmacy. And it turned out this was the exact same procedure at this Kunming Hospital.
Something else to note is how open medical care is in Chinese hospitals. Unlike in the U.S.A where every person is assigned to a room, everything here is public and open for observation. The emergency room was one large, open space was dozens of medical beds. I would assume privacy is considered a luxury in Chinese hospitals. We witnessed a man undergoing CPR from several doctors and nurses, and by the time we left he had died. I remember hearing the older brother breaking out into tears along side 70 other patients and family members cramped together. The emergency room was very small and every voice could be heard. It was a room echoed by the sounds of suffering, pain, and misery.
At this point, I hope that the prescribed medication for Sam would provide him some relief to his upset stomach and nausea.
The homework had to wait of course, but that was the least of my concerns. I felt assisting Lorenzo and Antonio in making sure they get proper medical care was far more important than a simple Chinese questionnaire. J
August 7th, 2009
I am going to skip a few days because the rest of the week was fairly typical and a lot of it was also acclimating to the new intensive study environment.
I do have a little tip bit for Chinese foreign travels on diet. One thing that can easily irritate a foreigner’s stomach is the consumption of too much bread. I can remember one lunch, I ate two loafs of baked bread because I was still hungry; however, I just overdosed on carbohydrates which made for a very uncomfortable rest of the day. The key word here is moderation.
Shortly afterwards, I had a tutor lesson with the professor. We discussed in more detail my struggle with the listening comprehension. She said she would lend me a cassette player she I could listen to the lesson in my spare time next Monday. I also explained I wanted to improve me speaking ability specifically with tones. We read through one of the dialogues, character by characters. She stopped me several times with corrections until I got it right. We also went through a new lesson’s vocabulary. She told me that she would be willing to meet me on a regular basis except Tuesdays. We planned on every Monday and Thursday at 1:30 P.M for one hour. I was glad to hear this considering that she was putting this time aside after almost 4 hours of teaching for only 40 RMB (~$5.00) per hour because she wants to see me succeed.
August 8th, 2009
Saturday brought two new students to the language program – one from Hungary and South Korea. The Hungary student, Bruno, had studied Chinese for four years; it was his major at his university. I also learned that Sarah, a good friend of both Dean and I, who was from Austria, was not only studying Chinese, but it was also her major as well. It turned out that they were both attending a yearlong language program at different Chinese universities – in Chengdu and Wuhan - based on scholarships they had received.
Sarah, Dean, and I went to the Da Guang Park in Kunming. It was a beautiful theme park. There was a garden right next to the entrance, which had unique varieties flora. The flora looked as if they were direct replicates of plants from traditional Chinese paintings. Another section was a Chinese version of a mini Disney Land Park. There was an enormous Ferris wheel that could overlook the whole city, a two-story merry go-round, and many large, screamer-like roller coasters.
That night, Sarah treated us to dinner for Western-style hamburgers at the French Café. It was the first time in 8 plus weeks that I ate a hamburger or for that matter any substantial amount of meat.
Sam had scheduled a small reunion and birthday celebration at the French Café. I went there early, but I didn’t see him. I didn’t have a cell phone or any communication except email, which made the situation a little troublesome. I also didn’t have a watch. I was time illiterate. I went back to my dorm, got my computer and hauled to the courtyard where there is wireless access to double check the location. It turned out I had gone to the right place, but I had just missed them.
I returned to the French Café and met Same Massie and his girlfriend, Zin. We went to another bar, where we celebrated his 22nd birthday, which was on August 7th with Xuanyang, Frank, the student who Sam stayed with in Kunming, and Frank’s younger sister.
The bar was a famous tourist attraction. All the local foreigners went there to hang out. We ordered several large cheese pizza and several bottles of Dali beers. The beer was for when we made a clumsy mistake as we played three hilariously fun Chinese games: the frog game, the name game, and the pirate game. I will explain this when I get back home. It is definitely worth learning.
We went to a dance club that night that was within walking distance from the French Café. The street was named Kundu and serves the nightlife hotspot of the city.The club we went to had an African D.J playing Western – English - music. Inside, the club was literally bouncing. The handing lights were actually swinging back and forth. The club was jam packed with 400 young Chinese people drinking and dancing. Then, all of a sudden, a hip-hop song that I was unfamiliar with had the lyrics ‘It’s Your Birthday.’ Sam noticed the small dance platform was vacant, not a soul was using it. We decided to give it a try since the song was absolutely perfect for the occasion. We took the small dance platform that over looked the crammed house of China’s youth generation. Without hesitation, we just danced. The crowed loved us for one of two reasons: Either we danced well or we were three waiguoren (forigners) who were absolutely horrible, but entertaining for trying. The crowd was lively and for whatever the reason, I simply put aside any self-consciousness and just had fun with it. We swayed our hands along with a few other hand moves. And it got a response from the crowd, it seemed as if about a fifth of the mass followed along. They loved watching three foreigners get their grove on.
Again, the location was called Kundu (昆都)。It is nothing less than a vibrant, energetic part of Kunming that dances through the night. In the late hours of the night, this is the spot, which everyone likes to migrate to. The block is swirling with lights and blasting music from a least a dozen different dance clubs. The best part is free emissions, but there is a catch. The cost of alcohol and other beverages are about 3 - 5 times more expansive.
The following week:
August 10th, 2009
After Monday’s class was dismissed, it turned out that all recipients of the HanBan Scholarship at Yunnan University received an extra 500 RMB as spending money. I was glad to have extra cash, especially since that money could go directly to pay for my private tutoring sessions with my teacher. Zhou Laoshi charged 40 RMB for an hour, which is $5.00 USD, which meant I could get about a total of 10 hours for 400 RMB. In any case, it was still a bargain in my books.
August 13th, 2009
Thursday night, Antonio and Lorenzo invited Sarah and I to join them at Nicholas’s Apartment for a late traditional, homemade Italian dinner. I had met Nicholas at Yunnan University a few times before, who was also studying Chinese. He was in the beginning level, and his classroom was directly across from ours. Nicholas was also from Italy, and he came to Kunming less than a month ago with plans to stay for a year. His roommate was Polish who had already lived in Kunming for a year. He was in his late 20’s, and had a lot of work experience in China with a trading company. He was now in Kunming primarily to study the language, and only planned to leave when he was fluent. He commented that it could take another 2 or 3 years until that level is reached.
The appetizer was a treat. It was sliced Italian bread with garlic and tomato paste. We had a little downtime between the appetizer and the main course meal. I got to describe my internship at the LGEC and various things I learned about biogas, challenges it faces in rural China, Chinese NGOs, creating the LGEC from the Green Youth Center, and planning a 2-day summer camp for 70 Chinese primary students. By the time I finished speaking, everyone in the room was listening intently, fascinated about a foreigner’s journey to try to make a difference for the people and the environment just out of goodwill. I like to call this my other life before coming to Kunming.
Dinner was served. It was a tradition Italian tuna pasta. It was wonderful to eat some homemade meals. All the meals in Kunming had either been at the university cafeteria or local restaurants. The conversation about the environment actually switched into one over global environmental crisis and what should be done about it. Everyone had something to say. It was very interesting to hear the responses. Nicholas was in support of going back to a traditional style of living such as on a farm where a person is responsible for growing his/her our own food again. Antonio had mixed views on globalization in the sense that it is absurd to have some products such as apples shipped half-way around the world such as Chile, New Zealand, and Washington State, but he was completely against a rebirth of ancestral living standards where everyone becomes a farmer. The two Italians were polar opposites in strategy for a solution, but agreed that we are amidst an environmental catastrophe. Antonio thought the solution was in matter of time as oil would become ever more scarce. I recall him saying, “I hope that day comes soon!” When I commented that there are alternative sources of dirty fuels to replace oil such as tar sands in Ontario, Canada, I think it put realization for the rest of the group that waiting will not be an effective answer. I commented that focus should be on the “POLLUTION.” We even talked about potential renewable energy. Nuclear power was one suggested. The man from Poland was in full support of it. He expressed that Poland relays heavily on cheap, abundant resources of coal but said that wind and solar are not realistic options for Poland’s energy needs. His view was that if we are going to invest highly in wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, then why not also have a technological optimistic view on Nuclear. However, his opinion was solo. Everyone else had a negative connation with Nuclear and was against it. Their reasons were safety hazards, waste disposal, and with warming from Climate Change, cold water to cool the reactors would become even more difficult to locate. The last point they made was it is not a renewable energy sources since there is only a limited amount of Uranium on earth.
An environmental problem that I brought up, which is most relevant to China is water scarcity. I discussed about my experience in Lijiang and the filthy water used in the fishing ponds; depleting aquifers from excessive use past the replenish rates. Antonio decided to looked much more local. He saw Kunming as a perfect example of it. For instance, most people in the city don’t drink tap water. At every corner, there is a bottle stand with every kind of soda, mineral water, iced tea, etc. Every thing is bottled in plastic. It is scary thing to think about when you have to depend on the imported water. I can only image that it was not be that long in the future until water becomes the next oil. In addition, consider Dian Chi Lake. It is absolutely contaminated and severely polluted. Supposedly 20 years ago people could swim in the lake; today no one dares to go in. The cause is simple to understand, rapid industry growth and little if any governmental regulation. It my book it is strategy of tragedy. As I had observed it, I recalled seeing a green-layered film of algae, which interesting enough didn’t stop a small group of fisherman from collecting fish to sell to the near-by restaurants.
The conversation ended on a positive note that educational, environmental discussions are desperately needed, and in this part of the world unfortunately, it is not being discussed nearly enough. The message the Polish left us was - “We are going to change the world,” which I personally think was more hype than anything from a 2-hour discussion. However, I was glad that there is a strong interest in these issues. I must say that I did very little of the talking. Everyone seemed to have an opinion and a concern, which they were all eager to share.
August 14th, 2009
Zhou Laoshi and my class went to an upscale restaurant overlooking the Dian Shi Lake with the mountain range in the backdrop. The first dish was a special broth with chicken. I forget the name of it, but she explained to us that it was a specialty in Kunming. The plates rolled in one after another. If I recall correctly, it was somewhere around 11 to 12 dishes for 7 people.
I will let you all in a little daredevil stunt I par took in. I will first comment that I have deadly allergies to nuts of any kind and bananas. It is life threatening. I had explained to my teacher who ordered the dishes my food restrictions. As the food was served, one of the dishes had a pile of peanuts hidden under a thin layer of tofu. I almost tried it unaware of what was beneath. Thankfully, out of raw suspicion I asked Zhou Laoshi if it had nuts. She said yes unaware of the severity of my allergies. Even though it was obvious to stay away from that dish, there was another problem presented – cross contamination. For instance, one person used their chopsticks to eat from that particular dish and then do the same for another. Back home, my parents would not probably forbid me to continue eating out of health and safety concerns. So this is how I became a risk taker. I decided to continue eating from the other dishes even after the dish had been so-called contaminated. My thinking was I have all the medication on me if something happens. In addition, I know cross-contamination happens all the time behind the scenes in the restaurant kitchens. However, I have yet to have a reaction. Through the course of lunch, I ate cautiously and left without any symptoms. J My conclusion is that perhaps my nut allergies are not as sensitive as they had once been several years’ back. Go figure…
We took a walk Dian Chi Lake, the largest lake in Kunming. The scenery was gorgeous, until I got to take closer look at the water quality. The lake had what appeared to be a thick green layer of algae on the surface. There was no transparency. From prior studies at SU on geo-systems, it looked as if this portion of the lake was highly eutrophic – deprived of oxygen. Through the course of my stay here at Kunming, I occasionally asked students about the state of the beautiful location. They said when they were young – about 15 years ago, they would go with their friends and swim in Dian Chi. The expressed that the water was clear without any muck. It was a safe place to swim. However, they don’t even dare to go in. The pollution is rampant. I actually saw this when I was at Da Guang Park. There was dozens of factors on the shoreline of the lake that released wastewater directly in the lake. One student remarked that the government has not set any tight regulations, which means there is not oversight on pollution and waste runoff.
In the proximity of south section of the lake was the Yunnan Ethnic Minority Museum. Yunnan Province is an especially culturally rich – home to 26 of Republic of China’s 56 Ethnic Minorities. The museum was filled artifacts such as masks, fossils, carved stones, traditional clothing, and a gallery expressing Chinese’s government good relations with the minority groups.
August 15th – 27nd
I should mention that I met Pa Wei ( 帕唯) He is from Poland in his mid-40s. He is working for a trading company in both Kunming and GuangZhou, and he is studying Mandarin. He has lived within the country for a little more than a year with no previous language experience, but he appeared to be quick language learner. I met him in the Foreign Student Hotel’s courtyard. He was in the middle of talking with some of the young staff, when he invited me to sit down and join in on their conversation about different travels spots in Yunnan Province.
As the evening went from twilight to as black as can get with city lights, Pa Wei and I had some good suggestions for me in terms of building language fluency and confidence. He said that he frequently came here in the evening hours to meet some of the employees and just chat. He recommended that I do the same. In addition, he suggested going to the university courtyard next to the basketball courts when studying because when you have questions most Chinese people will want to come and help. I also explained to him that I am overwhelmed with trying to learn over 100 new vocabulary words a day (in my opinion, it is not feasible!). He said another benefit to meeting with natives is that you can show them your textbook and ask what words do they common use, rather than trying to memorize every single word in the textbook. I thought that was the best tip.
The story of environmental issues also emerged as a topic in reference to increasing living starts in China to that of the West. The following is a story Pa Wei’s shared with me. He told me he has lived in Kunming for a year and owns a bike. He also enjoys tennis, which in China is a sport of the prosperous and affluent. When he mets some of his friends at a tennis court, he was the only one who rode his bike. Everyone else drove a car. One man lived only 500 yards away but still drove his SUV. The car has become an symbol of wealth in China, and just goes to show materialistic, capitalistic duplication of the West’s model, particularly the United States.
The following week was one activity after another. There were no pit stops J. It began on Saturday evening when Si Nan, an employee of Yunnan EcoNetwork suddenly showed up at my dormitory. It was a fortunate coincidence that I was still in the room studying, otherwise there would have been no way to reach me. She invited me to go to an Organic Farm in the outskirts of Kunming, about an hour drive away. It was the only Organic Farm in Kunming. I thought this would be a very exciting opportunity considering I had studied a little on biodynamic, organic gardening in Dr. Miller’s Environmental History class. However, this would be a different version containing Chinese characteristics. We planned to meet at the entrance of Yunnan Normal University the next day at 9:00 A.M., which was literally across the main road. Si Nan said she would not be joining me, but 3 visitors from Denmark.
After she left, I finally realized how disengaged I was without a mobile phone. Life without a Chinese cell phone was becoming increasingly difficult, especially when trying to arrange plans with friends. The evening, I decided to get another one of Chinese cheapest NOKIA cell phones - $25.00 USD.
The name of the organic farm is called Hao Bao. It was established in 2002, but was certified as an organic in 2005. The farm is large, but it is only covers a 110 hectares. The farm is located in a very mountainous region, which meant that it was not an open patch of land that you might find in the agricultural fields of Bellingham, Washington. These were terraces carved out in the narrow valley as if it was a narrow winding path. There was also a difference in climate, the temperate was warmer than in the city. We were about 500 meters higher than Kunming. I remember the landscape being absolutely beautiful in a natural setting. The crops they harvested were a variety of cabbage from colors of white to purple. At this time, I can’t recall the Chinese or English names, but I have their phone number, so it is just a call away. There were cherry tomatoes and other larger-sized varieties. There were eggplant, carrots, pumpkin, sunflowers, red peppers, and more. They even grew their own livestock – goats, pigs, chickens, and ducks. The difference from these organic livestock was their feed and movable area. They say every other day they let the animals roam around the surrounding area outside their pin. In terms of selection of the location, they told me their requirements as a business – clean water, air, and soil that had not been contaminated with use of pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Those are three very difficult standards to meet in a country where economic growth is rampant and any agricultural land is becoming scarcer, air and water pollution are the norm, and finally where many farmers continue to use synthetic chemicals for higher yields.
My last comment here is that they also had 4 hotel-like bedrooms for visitors, which were designed with environmental protection in mind. I was thoroughly impressed by the architectural design. For example, each room was shaped like a dome that was built into the side of a hill. The roof was covered with native plant species. Inside a room, there were two beds, a fireplace, and a bench. It was a very unique sight to see considering that this was China, but I saw it a sign of transition within the country towards an increasing environmental awareness.
On Monday after class, Sarah, Anna and I went to the Yunnan Ethnic Minority Park. It is an enormous park in the West side of Kunming next to Dian Chi Lake. I will give a small tip-bit of information for all the next study abroad students who decided to come to China – have your student identification card on you at all times. The benefit is sometimes can be a discount of over 50%. For instance, if I had not forgotten to bring my ID, I would have paid 35 RMB rather than 70 RMB. The park is open year around, but this was the last day that the park was hosting the torch festival. One highlight worth mentioning is when we dressed up in a minority group’s attire. Sarah and I both chose the Yi and Anna chose the Tibetan outfit. They were all beautifully decorated; however, they were not designed for giant Waiguoren such as myself. The staff repeatedly said to me, “你太高了”- You are just too tall. The horned crown was frankly too small, so I played more of a balancing act to keep in on my head. I have uploaded some fun pictures for you to look at with all three of us together. We visited about 6 to 7 minority groups that included the Tibetans, Mongolians, Naxi, Yi, Cun, and Dai.
During sunset, the park literally came to life with the start of the Torch Festival. One minority group after another came performing their traditional dances and playing musical instruments holding a torch as they headed towards the Torch Fire stadium attracting tourists by the hundreds. Once at the stadium, it was jam packed with over 5 thousand souls, most of who had a torch lit. Not all 26 ethnic groups were present, but approximately about 15 took the stadium floor dancing with the crowds – including myself. I joined in learning the dance moves from the person in front of me. A dancing, Caucasian foreign certainly caught a lot of attention, since I was the only one of my kind shaking a leg. Some of the pictures will give a sensation for the rest of the night.
On Wednesday, we went to the Stone Forest that is an hour drive from Kunming City. This historical site is a major tourist attraction, and they have a road for shuttles to circle around its parameters. Sarah, Anna, Even, and I took a different approach to experience the magnificent, limestone stone formations. We walked through some narrow trails where if one of us had been a little fatter along the waist, it would have been impassible. J We toured the site by foot for 5 hours. One of the locations we scouted out was the “Eternal Mushroom.” It took us to a place where there were no other visitors except us, but was by far the most alluring, sightseeing spot in the park. I will stop here because once again and let the pictures do the rest of the explaining.
At the end of the week, Pa Wei introduced me to a friend of his, Joyce. She is a graduate student at Yunnan Normal University (YNU), with a degree in English (UK English and American English). We became good friends over the course of a week. We went back to the Yunnan Ethnic Minority Park and participated in large-circle dance as well as watched the Tibetans and Mao perform many traditional dance and singing. We also joined Pa Wei and some other Yunnan Normal University Students for a night of KTV – Karaoke KTV style. I remember telling Joyce that I wanted to come back to China after graduation at Seattle University to continue my studies at a Beijing University for at least a year. Her stance was that Beijing is simply too expensive for housing and studying, and in addition the air pollution is terrible. She brought up this remark because we had gone running a few days before at YNU track, which was clever tactic on her part. By no means have I made a decision, but it has led me only to research over my options as what I want to do after graduation.
On August 25th, I had a very unique discussion with two Chinese student of Yunnan University. Their names were Carol and Frances. Carol was studying law and Frances was working to become a Chinese-English translator. The conversation began very small such as talking briefly about her Classic IPOD. She told me she went to the United States to purchase it to get the authentic model. However, I told her it was ‘made in China,” which came as a shock to her. She assumed it was in manufactured in the U.S. All I had to do what take the IPOD out of the case, turn it over, and read the small print on the back. This opened a conversation about globalization. In China, foreign manufactured products are taxed heavily to protect and promote domestic businesses, which obviously made it cheaper overseas in the U.S. We discussed my experience at a fruit shop as I purchased some apples. There were no apples from Kunming. They were either from Chile, New Zealand, or Washington State. Their response was that the business just puts those tags on them as incentive for charging higher prices. However, I told them that Washington State is a large exporter of apples to China, so I would assume that they were not locally grown. The topic of Climate Change was also brought up. Carol agreed it was a major crisis and was frustrated with the way things were going. She was the first Chinese student (person) besides Chen Laoshi that I met who also had strong emotional feeling tied to this environmental crisis. I recall that I listed a lot figures, data, and organizations that all pointed out that we have a problem, a global environmental crisis on our hands. Her fundamental question to me was “How do you get people to care?” She acknowledged that the information is available, the scientific evidence is clear, but it is matter of how to make people on a large scale do something about it. I was in total agreement. I expressed that one of the things I have learned in China is the essential need for education – both rural and urban. (I remember when I talked to Joyce and asked her about climate change and carbon emissions of the bus that we were riding. She told me she had never heard of it, was unaware of the issues on a global scale. She further responded that this was my major, not hers. In her view, there first needs to be economic development and then there can be environmental protection. I asked her what should be done about it. Her response was simply, “I don’t have any method of acting.”) The rest of the dialogue was a discussion about a whole host of global environmental problems by pointing out the interconnectedness of this issues and considering what should be done. The discussion lasted for about an hour and a half. They said that I should consider giving a lecture at the Yunnan University or other locations on these urgent issues. It was interesting feedback from two university students who were complete strangers just over an hour ago. I think they saw, perhaps, a passion or a flare that lit up within me as spoke to them. As I went back to my dorm, I felt as if that small duration of time was the most productive use of my time spent in Kunming. I felt as if I had made a positive contribution for two students who were already intrigued and concerned on the topic. I felt in the future I can do some work related to advocacy on these issues. I believe the interest is there at some level, but there lacks knowledge on the linkages.
The following day, Anna, a classmate, approached me during one of the class breaks. Anna was 19-year-old high school graduate and ethnically Chinese, but here grandparents immigrated to France. She had become a friend of mine during the past two weeks, but was usually rather silent. The day prior, she had a Chinese flute tutoring session at the same time as Carol, Frances, and I had the conversation just across from the table we were sitting at. The discussion was about some of the political references I made in that dialogue. I didn’t mention anything about Tibet or Taiwan, but I did talk briefly about the different political systems and how I wish the U.S could be China for a day in terms of it ability to “Say it, then do it” in a very timely fashion. A point I had made was that if the Chinese government felt the urgency and opportunity to invest in renewable energy for example, this could achieve that goal more in more rapid pace than perhaps in America. This was exceedingly bothersome to Anna, and she made that crystal clear to me. Her English was a little difficult to understand, but the overlaying message was that I was a naïve, childish American potentially putting the safety of the students at risk for engaging in such a discussion. The message left was leave any kind of politics out of the discourse, and I was in total agreement. I agreed that I needed to be politically sensitive for future talks.
The last two days, the teacher switched the schedule of the class. We talked in Chinese on personal topics of interest rather than direct readings from a textbook. One of the discussions I brought up the relationship between Burma and China, and the exchange of resources. I carefully tried to skim the subject of politics as much as possible. We also talked about OPEC and China as a large importer of petroleum. This all got Anna pretty upset with me. Her response was to stop this love affair, which she thought was agitating the teacher. I still keep in contact with Anna, but she gave me a perspective about need for sensitivity and the particular styles of communication outside of America. Even though she criticized me the most of all the students, I felt she helped me reexamine how I should address people, and to think twice before speaking especially when culture and politics are foreign to me.
August 28th, 2009
I arrived in Shanghai’s Domestic Terminal at 5:30 P.M, and Joyce and her father who greeted me at the entrance. I was met by a the father’s shofer to assist me with my laThe father had a shofer driving a Toyota SUV, I forgot the model. After a hour drive into the center of the city, we arrived at their apartment complex. Because their apartment was too small for a forth person, her family reserved a hotel room for me across the street, expenses paid, for both Friday and Saturday night. That evening, I met the entire family (Cai Baba - Father, Cai Mama - Mother, Cai Meimei - Joyce) had a dinner in celebration of my arrival. I felt very welcomed and part of the family. Their parents are both Chemists, and Joyce is studying English, which she plans to use after graduation as an English teacher in Shanghai.
On Saturday, I got to experience one unforgettable event. I went to visit the SWFC. It is currently the tallest building in the world at 492 meters, which was just completed in 2008. Joyce parents accompanied us to the entrance, and then we left on our own as they had other plans for the afternoon for preparing an homemade dinner. It was a breathtaking experience to overlook all of Shanghai including the DongFang Mingzu, The Bund and the 3,000 + skyscrapers that make up the horizon. It was truly surreal. The elevator ride was also unbelievable fast. From the basement, we reached the 97th floor, which was the SWFC Observatory, in a matter of 1 to 2 minutes. I felt like I was seated in an aircraft just after takeoff, except this was vertical motion rather than a gradual slope. I wouldn’t go in the details of the building, but it something worth reading about. The exterior and interior design, architectural structure, and state-of-the-art technologies are as futuristic as gets in the year 2009. Anyone interested can easily search it on Google.
In addition, the father and mother prepared an extravagant dinner when we returned. The father fancied seafood and cooked scallops, shrimp, and a California species of trout raised in China. There was a whole duck covered in soy sauce, black mushrooms, pork, white cabbage, and homemade southern-Chinese--styled Jiaozi by Joyce and me. Wait a second; we also had about half a dozen bottles of Japanese branded beer. It was a wonderful, scrumptious treat! J
I will make one environmental comment, and it does have to do with food. An observation I noticed as Joyce’s family was relatively well off financially, their consumption of meat was substantially higher than when I was in Lijiang. For instances, as we had dinner the first night, they ordered approximately … 4 dishes of only meat (duck, beef, and pork). I can remember when I ate in Lijiang, I was picking through my rice bowl for any miniscule pieces. I think the amount of meat I ate in that one dinner was equivalent to about one week of meat for the entire 5 LGEC group. The point here is that I got to observe the difference between rural and urban eating habits and also see the connection between affluence and consumption of meat.
August 30th, 2009
Joyce and I hitched a ride with the father’s shofer to the Shanghai Airport to drop of her father who was leaving Da Lian and Chengdu for work-related meetings. Supposedly, Cai Baba frequently traveled domestically across China. I had realized how fortunate I was to have meet Joyce’s father that weekend and have her entire family give me a tour of Shanghai.
The shofer arrived at the entrance of the Shanghai Business University at 3:00 P.M., and memories began flashback in my mind from one year ago. The first task was for me to get a room for the next two weeks. I won’t go into the knots and blots, but I will comment that Joyce helped assisted me in getting the housing arrangements settled. The room I was given was not a dormitory, but a hotel. I have the room to myself – two beds, a T.V, two desks, two chairs, a shower, toilet, sink, etc. - which was designed for two people and probably could support 5 students.
That night I had a small reunion with several of my friend from the university last year such as Wang Cheng, Alan, Joyce, and Xiao Fei. We had dinner together on the third floor of the cafeteria building, which has dozens of restaurants to choose from. It was absolutely wonderful to see some familiar faces in China who had become close friends just a year ago.
Latter than night, as Wang Cheng and Alan accompanied me back to my dorm, they told me that there was another foreign student from Seattle, Washington. I thought they were twisting my leg because I had been informed earlier that the Bellevue Community College study abroad group had decided not to come this year. It turned out that across from my room was a 30-year old woman from West Seattle. Her name was Jennifer Yang. The name may through you for a loop, but let me clarify, she is Caucasian. She had studied the Mandarin for about 2 years and has been studying Cultural Studies at Bellevue Community College. She actually attended Professor Geiger’s Chinese class for three quarters, and it was networking through her that she decided to come to the Shanghai Business College (SBS). Coincidentally, she arrived last Friday, which was the same date I got into Shanghai. Her plans are two further she language studies at SBS for 5 months as she has enrolled in a class, and eventually wants to be a certified translator for legal firms.
August 31st, 2009
Since I was familiar with the campus, I joined her on Monday morning, as she had not received an agenda for the week. We had breakfast at the cafeteria together, and then it was not clear where to go next. Jennifer only knew the teacher name, Zhong Laoshi. I thought it would be best for us to go to the administration building, which most of the teacher’s office were located. Once inside, I simply asked around for Zhong Laoshi’s office. We were finally told to go to the 4th floor. We met Zhong Laoshi in the foreign student’s office. It almost seemed as if she was expecting us to come. She had prepared to a two-week schedule and gave us a run down of what the events would be. The first week was getting acclimated to the school – learning where everything is on campus and in the surrounding proximity, purchasing food, library cards, and all-day outings in the center of Shanghai. The second week was the official start of classes for the foreign students, the waiguoren. I was asked if I wanted to enroll in a class, but I politely said, “No Thanks,” due to my short stay. As she listened to my Chinese speaking ability, she said that I could stop by, sit in and participate in the class during my spare time. I think she realized I could help add to the class discussions.
Associate Professor Fang who works in the Dean of Foreign Affairs office also came to greet us. I had actually met Fang Laoshi last year as I did my study abroad with BCC (Bellevue Community Colllege). He was surprised to see me return just a year after, and even more impressed when I told him briefly about my stay in Lijiang and Kunming.
Shortly afterwards, Zhong Laoshi took us to pay for the housing fee. I ended up paying 800 RMB for two weeks, which comes to less than 60 RMB per night. It is actually a little cheaper than living at the Lijiang Green Education Center ironically. Or let me rethink that. I currently don’t have Internet access and meals are a separate cost. Zhong Laoshi also gave us introduction to the campus such as getting a campus food and library card. As we toured the library, she told us that she was in a similar position to Jennifer in terms of getting accumulated to SBS. Zhong Laoshi was a new foreign language professor who had just graduated from a Shanghai University in English. Her goal as a new professor was to create and improve the foreign language program, which before has been lacking.
The afternoon was a basketball tournament. I had been invited to join a few friends on the court. I was by no means well dressed. I had forgot to bring any exercising clothing from the states. My substitute was a cotton pair of shorts and T-shirt with a pair of hiking shoes. I had the logo foreigner written all over me at that point. Besides the clothing mishap, it felt great to get some exercise, shot some hoops, and release some stress. It was the first workout in China that I had a good sweat, which may sound disgusting. However, it was like cleansing for my body.
The overall experience here at SBS has been great, and in many feels it has felt like deja-vu all over again. I will say the pace of life in China has been tapering down slightly. My last comment here is that the activities that I doing now where not planned even three days ago. The system in China that I have come to learn is to be open, flexible, and spontaneous. A metaphor that comes to mind is it is like jumping into the rapid Yangtze River and just rolling with the currents.
All the best,
Kevin
August 3rd, 2009
I was especially excited for this Monday morning. This was the first day of enrollment in the Yunnan University’s HSK class. The classes were scheduled to begin at 8:30 A.M. The administrator in the office informed me of the four different language level classes offered. I was assigned to the second level; however, I was told that if I thought it was too difficult or easy I could switch classes. I initially tried out the intermediate course. There were two other students besides me in a very compact classroom. The male teacher was very friendly and had interesting subjects such as ethnic minorities and dialect. I also felt very comfortable with my language ability in terms of listening and vocabulary. However, I thought being here in China is the perfect time to get out of my comfort zone, so I decided to pick up my stuff and walk down the hall to the next level up. I should mention here that the language schedule is from 8:30 A.M to 12:30 P.M. The time is split into two parts. The first two hours, I met an older female teacher, Zhou Laoshi. She was intimidating at first. She spoke at a pace that also made it almost impossible to understand her clearly. Part of this reason was that she was referencing a dialogue and new, unfamiliar vocabulary that I had not reviewed. I didn’t even have the textbook. I basically walked in half blind folded. She also couldn’t speak a word of English, so to get clarification was to have an explanation in Chinese. The second teacher was male and this class went much smoother. Even though I was without a textbook, my classmate let me look at his as we covered a new lesson’s vocabulary and dialogue. In addition, his style was not lecture based, but very interactive with opportunities for us to come up to the front of the room to perform real-life skits. The classroom was very popular; almost every seat was filled. However, the total number of international students that were participating in the program was no more than 20-30. The students had a diverse background: Italy, France, South Korea, Thailand, England, and the U.S.A. I associated the small enrollment to the current financial crisis, which has made everyone more finically conscious. In addition, the class sizes were fairly small – no more than 8 to 10 students per class.
The afternoon, Dean, my roommate, and I went to the Yunnan University Supermarket to buy some writing supplies – notepads, mechanical pencils, pens, and a pocket-sized Chinese-English Dictionary.
Inside the courtyard of the foreign student dormitory, there is a bookstore specifically for HSK students. I had decided to commit to the third-level Chinese language course, and I received three textbooks – oral, listening, and the primary textbook for the class.
That late afternoon, I over exerted myself studying and preparing. The two classes combined had introduced a total of 80 new characters. I decided to take my notepad and write each character 5 to 6 times with English definitions. This was a several hour project I had put on myself, and furthermore my teacher did not require it. My thinking was that I wanted to get back into the habit of writing characters. There was homework that had also been assigned. I went over to my newly met Italian friends dorm where I spent the last evening working with them on the assignment. Simply put, it is school in August with a language twist.
August 4, 2009
Monday night, we set Dean’s cell phone alarm at 6:30 A.M, so we would have time to go to the Yunnan University’s cafeteria before class. The class layout was similar to Monday. We went over our assigned homework and reviewed the grammar from lesson three. We also went into the next lesson (4) that had 50 new characters. The pace of the class is very rapid. To compare, at Seattle University we complete a lesson about every week or two. I think a good metaphor would be comparing the speed of a car to a plane. We were notified that the second teacher would not be arriving due to the unanticipated weather; hence, we got out of class early. I spent it reviewing the new lesson and marking the words in my dictionary.
The prior weekend and Monday, I was very fortunate with gorgeous blue skies; however, that came to end with a dark overcast weather. During class, it began pouring cats and dogs with lighting sticks directly overhead. Kunming is a city that is encompassed by mountain ranges, which means that thunderstorms can sometimes become stagnant overhead. The mountain ranges can act as a glass bowl that holds water or weather fronts.
After lunch with the South Korean students, Dean and I returned back to the dorm and took a highly needed nap.
At 4:00 P.M, I went with a South Korean Professor studying Mandarin to go meet some other foreign students at a distant bus stop, which we planned to go to a popular tourist destination. Long story short, the students and teacher we planned to meet never showed. It actually turned out that there was a miscommunication about the meeting place.
In the evening, I studied with the two Italian students – Lorenzo and Antonio. There were many new and unfamiliar characters, and we went over the dialogue together. At this point, I would say that we have become a study group. I am very happy that I have met them; they have been very helpful through this learning curve period.
August 5, 2009
By Wednesday, I began to get into a routine of life in YNU (Yunnan University). On the topic of food, a student has two options to choose from – eat on-campus or off-campus limian chifan haishi waimian chifan. At the start of the language program, we were given 100 RMB campus cards that could be used at the campus cafeteria and supermarket. The advantage to the Shitang Cafeteria was the unbeatably cheap price. The food in my opinion was as good as the price I paid. The first few days, Dean and I ate there for almost every meal. It became a struggle for me personally, and started craving either some real Chinese food or a little Western food. Obvious, eating at Shitang was not a habit that I grew into.
For breakfast, we went to two small restaurants (more like fast food Chinese bars). We bought on occasion an oily break stick (that is that actually translation) and an egg waffle, jidanbing. This is great as to have other options than only eating hard-boiled eggs and the rice version of oatmeal, which can get old fast.
I also got a feel for the classroom routine. This is the layout of our schedule.
M T W TH F
Chinese Middle Level General Class 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Morning 8:30 – 10:10
发展汉语中级汉语
Spoken Chinese – Pre-Intermediate 1, 4 Morning 10:20 – 12:00
汉语口语 提高
Listen Comprehension Chinese 2, 5 Morning 10:20 – 12:00
汉语听力教程 第二册
I will point out that the most difficult subject is the listening comprehension and answering the multiple-choice questions. This is partly due to the extensive amount of new characters we have learned, but I have been slow to catch up. The listening aspect has always been a weakness of mine, but that just motivates me to study and listen more concretely. I explained to the teacher after class about some of my challenges and what I feel I need extra help on to take my language skills to the next level. She first told me that my obstacles were not unique; that everyone is class had similar problems. She also reminded me that everyone in the class had studied the language for 3 years or longer; I was the exception at 2 years. I asked here is she would be willing to meet me after class to help answer some of my questions and practice speaking some of the dialogues. She told me that she would not be able to meet everyday, but she would meet me tomorrow.
It is also amazing how 3.5 hours of studying can feel like a intensive mind workout. After lunch, I would feel utterly exhausted. Some days I took an afternoon nap just to recuperate. For instance, I would crash from 1:30 to 6:00 P.M.
That evening, I met Lorenzo outside the lobby, and joined him, as he was about to go shopping for some fruits and another easy digestible food products for Antonio. Supposedly, Antonio was having severe stomachaches.
As he returned back to the dorm, I went to the Shitang Cafeteria for dinner. I met an undergraduate student studying at Kunming Normal University, which was directly across the street. We spent the late evening discussing my major and her family in Northern China and her studies in Business Management. One topic that was actively discussed was how almost everything in Kunming, perhaps China, was wrapped, bottled, sealed in plastic. I explained why recycling was not a complete win-win situation, because most of the plastics manufactured were unrecyclable. I explained a little about the Texas-sized gyre in the Pacific Ocean full of plastic and the ripple effects up the food chain. We also discussed China’s shortage of clean water. It was a fascinating conversation, but it appeared that she had more or less a little understand of the topic, but was very interested in learning more about it and my thoughts.
I returned to the lobby and met two faculty professors, Xie Laoshi and Yang Laoshi. Yang Laoshi was the first teacher I met on Monday morning. His class was the one that I switched out of, but he still remained a friendly person that I saw occasional across campus and around the dormitory. The two professors were managing a foreign study abroad group from Oklahoma. When I heard Oklahoma mentioned I was a little surprised by the state. You don’t hear Oklahoma having a large Chinese population, but I think it illustrated that the Chinese cultural and language has caught a broad interest from even the most agricultural section of the U.S. In my opinion, it is becoming a language without borders. The professors were making the final arrangements for the students as they planned to travel to Dali around 8 A.M the following day.
I saw Lorenzo come down the stairs into the hallway and asked where he was going (the most common question foreign abroad students ask each other). He said he was going to go get dinner, and asked if I could accompany him to a nearby restaurant that I suggested.
Lorenzo and I still had not even began our homework assignments and decided to do it when we returned back to the dorm. However, it turned out that Antonio flu-like symptoms were getting worse. I few minutes after we returned, Antonio almost passed out in the bathroom. At that point we decided it was necessary to go to the Kunming Hospital to have him checked out. I got a taxi pulled up for them to the entrance and decided to accompany them to the emergency room since I had some experience back in Lijiang. I knew the routine of payment first, doctor’s office, blood draw, X-Ray, return to doctor’s office for prognosis, treatment recommendations, and prescriptions, and finally to the pharmacy. And it turned out this was the exact same procedure at this Kunming Hospital.
Something else to note is how open medical care is in Chinese hospitals. Unlike in the U.S.A where every person is assigned to a room, everything here is public and open for observation. The emergency room was one large, open space was dozens of medical beds. I would assume privacy is considered a luxury in Chinese hospitals. We witnessed a man undergoing CPR from several doctors and nurses, and by the time we left he had died. I remember hearing the older brother breaking out into tears along side 70 other patients and family members cramped together. The emergency room was very small and every voice could be heard. It was a room echoed by the sounds of suffering, pain, and misery.
At this point, I hope that the prescribed medication for Sam would provide him some relief to his upset stomach and nausea.
The homework had to wait of course, but that was the least of my concerns. I felt assisting Lorenzo and Antonio in making sure they get proper medical care was far more important than a simple Chinese questionnaire. J
August 7th, 2009
I am going to skip a few days because the rest of the week was fairly typical and a lot of it was also acclimating to the new intensive study environment.
I do have a little tip bit for Chinese foreign travels on diet. One thing that can easily irritate a foreigner’s stomach is the consumption of too much bread. I can remember one lunch, I ate two loafs of baked bread because I was still hungry; however, I just overdosed on carbohydrates which made for a very uncomfortable rest of the day. The key word here is moderation.
Shortly afterwards, I had a tutor lesson with the professor. We discussed in more detail my struggle with the listening comprehension. She said she would lend me a cassette player she I could listen to the lesson in my spare time next Monday. I also explained I wanted to improve me speaking ability specifically with tones. We read through one of the dialogues, character by characters. She stopped me several times with corrections until I got it right. We also went through a new lesson’s vocabulary. She told me that she would be willing to meet me on a regular basis except Tuesdays. We planned on every Monday and Thursday at 1:30 P.M for one hour. I was glad to hear this considering that she was putting this time aside after almost 4 hours of teaching for only 40 RMB (~$5.00) per hour because she wants to see me succeed.
August 8th, 2009
Saturday brought two new students to the language program – one from Hungary and South Korea. The Hungary student, Bruno, had studied Chinese for four years; it was his major at his university. I also learned that Sarah, a good friend of both Dean and I, who was from Austria, was not only studying Chinese, but it was also her major as well. It turned out that they were both attending a yearlong language program at different Chinese universities – in Chengdu and Wuhan - based on scholarships they had received.
Sarah, Dean, and I went to the Da Guang Park in Kunming. It was a beautiful theme park. There was a garden right next to the entrance, which had unique varieties flora. The flora looked as if they were direct replicates of plants from traditional Chinese paintings. Another section was a Chinese version of a mini Disney Land Park. There was an enormous Ferris wheel that could overlook the whole city, a two-story merry go-round, and many large, screamer-like roller coasters.
That night, Sarah treated us to dinner for Western-style hamburgers at the French Café. It was the first time in 8 plus weeks that I ate a hamburger or for that matter any substantial amount of meat.
Sam had scheduled a small reunion and birthday celebration at the French Café. I went there early, but I didn’t see him. I didn’t have a cell phone or any communication except email, which made the situation a little troublesome. I also didn’t have a watch. I was time illiterate. I went back to my dorm, got my computer and hauled to the courtyard where there is wireless access to double check the location. It turned out I had gone to the right place, but I had just missed them.
I returned to the French Café and met Same Massie and his girlfriend, Zin. We went to another bar, where we celebrated his 22nd birthday, which was on August 7th with Xuanyang, Frank, the student who Sam stayed with in Kunming, and Frank’s younger sister.
The bar was a famous tourist attraction. All the local foreigners went there to hang out. We ordered several large cheese pizza and several bottles of Dali beers. The beer was for when we made a clumsy mistake as we played three hilariously fun Chinese games: the frog game, the name game, and the pirate game. I will explain this when I get back home. It is definitely worth learning.
We went to a dance club that night that was within walking distance from the French Café. The street was named Kundu and serves the nightlife hotspot of the city.The club we went to had an African D.J playing Western – English - music. Inside, the club was literally bouncing. The handing lights were actually swinging back and forth. The club was jam packed with 400 young Chinese people drinking and dancing. Then, all of a sudden, a hip-hop song that I was unfamiliar with had the lyrics ‘It’s Your Birthday.’ Sam noticed the small dance platform was vacant, not a soul was using it. We decided to give it a try since the song was absolutely perfect for the occasion. We took the small dance platform that over looked the crammed house of China’s youth generation. Without hesitation, we just danced. The crowed loved us for one of two reasons: Either we danced well or we were three waiguoren (forigners) who were absolutely horrible, but entertaining for trying. The crowd was lively and for whatever the reason, I simply put aside any self-consciousness and just had fun with it. We swayed our hands along with a few other hand moves. And it got a response from the crowd, it seemed as if about a fifth of the mass followed along. They loved watching three foreigners get their grove on.
Again, the location was called Kundu (昆都)。It is nothing less than a vibrant, energetic part of Kunming that dances through the night. In the late hours of the night, this is the spot, which everyone likes to migrate to. The block is swirling with lights and blasting music from a least a dozen different dance clubs. The best part is free emissions, but there is a catch. The cost of alcohol and other beverages are about 3 - 5 times more expansive.
The following week:
August 10th, 2009
After Monday’s class was dismissed, it turned out that all recipients of the HanBan Scholarship at Yunnan University received an extra 500 RMB as spending money. I was glad to have extra cash, especially since that money could go directly to pay for my private tutoring sessions with my teacher. Zhou Laoshi charged 40 RMB for an hour, which is $5.00 USD, which meant I could get about a total of 10 hours for 400 RMB. In any case, it was still a bargain in my books.
August 13th, 2009
Thursday night, Antonio and Lorenzo invited Sarah and I to join them at Nicholas’s Apartment for a late traditional, homemade Italian dinner. I had met Nicholas at Yunnan University a few times before, who was also studying Chinese. He was in the beginning level, and his classroom was directly across from ours. Nicholas was also from Italy, and he came to Kunming less than a month ago with plans to stay for a year. His roommate was Polish who had already lived in Kunming for a year. He was in his late 20’s, and had a lot of work experience in China with a trading company. He was now in Kunming primarily to study the language, and only planned to leave when he was fluent. He commented that it could take another 2 or 3 years until that level is reached.
The appetizer was a treat. It was sliced Italian bread with garlic and tomato paste. We had a little downtime between the appetizer and the main course meal. I got to describe my internship at the LGEC and various things I learned about biogas, challenges it faces in rural China, Chinese NGOs, creating the LGEC from the Green Youth Center, and planning a 2-day summer camp for 70 Chinese primary students. By the time I finished speaking, everyone in the room was listening intently, fascinated about a foreigner’s journey to try to make a difference for the people and the environment just out of goodwill. I like to call this my other life before coming to Kunming.
Dinner was served. It was a tradition Italian tuna pasta. It was wonderful to eat some homemade meals. All the meals in Kunming had either been at the university cafeteria or local restaurants. The conversation about the environment actually switched into one over global environmental crisis and what should be done about it. Everyone had something to say. It was very interesting to hear the responses. Nicholas was in support of going back to a traditional style of living such as on a farm where a person is responsible for growing his/her our own food again. Antonio had mixed views on globalization in the sense that it is absurd to have some products such as apples shipped half-way around the world such as Chile, New Zealand, and Washington State, but he was completely against a rebirth of ancestral living standards where everyone becomes a farmer. The two Italians were polar opposites in strategy for a solution, but agreed that we are amidst an environmental catastrophe. Antonio thought the solution was in matter of time as oil would become ever more scarce. I recall him saying, “I hope that day comes soon!” When I commented that there are alternative sources of dirty fuels to replace oil such as tar sands in Ontario, Canada, I think it put realization for the rest of the group that waiting will not be an effective answer. I commented that focus should be on the “POLLUTION.” We even talked about potential renewable energy. Nuclear power was one suggested. The man from Poland was in full support of it. He expressed that Poland relays heavily on cheap, abundant resources of coal but said that wind and solar are not realistic options for Poland’s energy needs. His view was that if we are going to invest highly in wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, then why not also have a technological optimistic view on Nuclear. However, his opinion was solo. Everyone else had a negative connation with Nuclear and was against it. Their reasons were safety hazards, waste disposal, and with warming from Climate Change, cold water to cool the reactors would become even more difficult to locate. The last point they made was it is not a renewable energy sources since there is only a limited amount of Uranium on earth.
An environmental problem that I brought up, which is most relevant to China is water scarcity. I discussed about my experience in Lijiang and the filthy water used in the fishing ponds; depleting aquifers from excessive use past the replenish rates. Antonio decided to looked much more local. He saw Kunming as a perfect example of it. For instance, most people in the city don’t drink tap water. At every corner, there is a bottle stand with every kind of soda, mineral water, iced tea, etc. Every thing is bottled in plastic. It is scary thing to think about when you have to depend on the imported water. I can only image that it was not be that long in the future until water becomes the next oil. In addition, consider Dian Chi Lake. It is absolutely contaminated and severely polluted. Supposedly 20 years ago people could swim in the lake; today no one dares to go in. The cause is simple to understand, rapid industry growth and little if any governmental regulation. It my book it is strategy of tragedy. As I had observed it, I recalled seeing a green-layered film of algae, which interesting enough didn’t stop a small group of fisherman from collecting fish to sell to the near-by restaurants.
The conversation ended on a positive note that educational, environmental discussions are desperately needed, and in this part of the world unfortunately, it is not being discussed nearly enough. The message the Polish left us was - “We are going to change the world,” which I personally think was more hype than anything from a 2-hour discussion. However, I was glad that there is a strong interest in these issues. I must say that I did very little of the talking. Everyone seemed to have an opinion and a concern, which they were all eager to share.
August 14th, 2009
Zhou Laoshi and my class went to an upscale restaurant overlooking the Dian Shi Lake with the mountain range in the backdrop. The first dish was a special broth with chicken. I forget the name of it, but she explained to us that it was a specialty in Kunming. The plates rolled in one after another. If I recall correctly, it was somewhere around 11 to 12 dishes for 7 people.
I will let you all in a little daredevil stunt I par took in. I will first comment that I have deadly allergies to nuts of any kind and bananas. It is life threatening. I had explained to my teacher who ordered the dishes my food restrictions. As the food was served, one of the dishes had a pile of peanuts hidden under a thin layer of tofu. I almost tried it unaware of what was beneath. Thankfully, out of raw suspicion I asked Zhou Laoshi if it had nuts. She said yes unaware of the severity of my allergies. Even though it was obvious to stay away from that dish, there was another problem presented – cross contamination. For instance, one person used their chopsticks to eat from that particular dish and then do the same for another. Back home, my parents would not probably forbid me to continue eating out of health and safety concerns. So this is how I became a risk taker. I decided to continue eating from the other dishes even after the dish had been so-called contaminated. My thinking was I have all the medication on me if something happens. In addition, I know cross-contamination happens all the time behind the scenes in the restaurant kitchens. However, I have yet to have a reaction. Through the course of lunch, I ate cautiously and left without any symptoms. J My conclusion is that perhaps my nut allergies are not as sensitive as they had once been several years’ back. Go figure…
We took a walk Dian Chi Lake, the largest lake in Kunming. The scenery was gorgeous, until I got to take closer look at the water quality. The lake had what appeared to be a thick green layer of algae on the surface. There was no transparency. From prior studies at SU on geo-systems, it looked as if this portion of the lake was highly eutrophic – deprived of oxygen. Through the course of my stay here at Kunming, I occasionally asked students about the state of the beautiful location. They said when they were young – about 15 years ago, they would go with their friends and swim in Dian Chi. The expressed that the water was clear without any muck. It was a safe place to swim. However, they don’t even dare to go in. The pollution is rampant. I actually saw this when I was at Da Guang Park. There was dozens of factors on the shoreline of the lake that released wastewater directly in the lake. One student remarked that the government has not set any tight regulations, which means there is not oversight on pollution and waste runoff.
In the proximity of south section of the lake was the Yunnan Ethnic Minority Museum. Yunnan Province is an especially culturally rich – home to 26 of Republic of China’s 56 Ethnic Minorities. The museum was filled artifacts such as masks, fossils, carved stones, traditional clothing, and a gallery expressing Chinese’s government good relations with the minority groups.
August 15th – 27nd
I should mention that I met Pa Wei ( 帕唯) He is from Poland in his mid-40s. He is working for a trading company in both Kunming and GuangZhou, and he is studying Mandarin. He has lived within the country for a little more than a year with no previous language experience, but he appeared to be quick language learner. I met him in the Foreign Student Hotel’s courtyard. He was in the middle of talking with some of the young staff, when he invited me to sit down and join in on their conversation about different travels spots in Yunnan Province.
As the evening went from twilight to as black as can get with city lights, Pa Wei and I had some good suggestions for me in terms of building language fluency and confidence. He said that he frequently came here in the evening hours to meet some of the employees and just chat. He recommended that I do the same. In addition, he suggested going to the university courtyard next to the basketball courts when studying because when you have questions most Chinese people will want to come and help. I also explained to him that I am overwhelmed with trying to learn over 100 new vocabulary words a day (in my opinion, it is not feasible!). He said another benefit to meeting with natives is that you can show them your textbook and ask what words do they common use, rather than trying to memorize every single word in the textbook. I thought that was the best tip.
The story of environmental issues also emerged as a topic in reference to increasing living starts in China to that of the West. The following is a story Pa Wei’s shared with me. He told me he has lived in Kunming for a year and owns a bike. He also enjoys tennis, which in China is a sport of the prosperous and affluent. When he mets some of his friends at a tennis court, he was the only one who rode his bike. Everyone else drove a car. One man lived only 500 yards away but still drove his SUV. The car has become an symbol of wealth in China, and just goes to show materialistic, capitalistic duplication of the West’s model, particularly the United States.
The following week was one activity after another. There were no pit stops J. It began on Saturday evening when Si Nan, an employee of Yunnan EcoNetwork suddenly showed up at my dormitory. It was a fortunate coincidence that I was still in the room studying, otherwise there would have been no way to reach me. She invited me to go to an Organic Farm in the outskirts of Kunming, about an hour drive away. It was the only Organic Farm in Kunming. I thought this would be a very exciting opportunity considering I had studied a little on biodynamic, organic gardening in Dr. Miller’s Environmental History class. However, this would be a different version containing Chinese characteristics. We planned to meet at the entrance of Yunnan Normal University the next day at 9:00 A.M., which was literally across the main road. Si Nan said she would not be joining me, but 3 visitors from Denmark.
After she left, I finally realized how disengaged I was without a mobile phone. Life without a Chinese cell phone was becoming increasingly difficult, especially when trying to arrange plans with friends. The evening, I decided to get another one of Chinese cheapest NOKIA cell phones - $25.00 USD.
The name of the organic farm is called Hao Bao. It was established in 2002, but was certified as an organic in 2005. The farm is large, but it is only covers a 110 hectares. The farm is located in a very mountainous region, which meant that it was not an open patch of land that you might find in the agricultural fields of Bellingham, Washington. These were terraces carved out in the narrow valley as if it was a narrow winding path. There was also a difference in climate, the temperate was warmer than in the city. We were about 500 meters higher than Kunming. I remember the landscape being absolutely beautiful in a natural setting. The crops they harvested were a variety of cabbage from colors of white to purple. At this time, I can’t recall the Chinese or English names, but I have their phone number, so it is just a call away. There were cherry tomatoes and other larger-sized varieties. There were eggplant, carrots, pumpkin, sunflowers, red peppers, and more. They even grew their own livestock – goats, pigs, chickens, and ducks. The difference from these organic livestock was their feed and movable area. They say every other day they let the animals roam around the surrounding area outside their pin. In terms of selection of the location, they told me their requirements as a business – clean water, air, and soil that had not been contaminated with use of pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Those are three very difficult standards to meet in a country where economic growth is rampant and any agricultural land is becoming scarcer, air and water pollution are the norm, and finally where many farmers continue to use synthetic chemicals for higher yields.
My last comment here is that they also had 4 hotel-like bedrooms for visitors, which were designed with environmental protection in mind. I was thoroughly impressed by the architectural design. For example, each room was shaped like a dome that was built into the side of a hill. The roof was covered with native plant species. Inside a room, there were two beds, a fireplace, and a bench. It was a very unique sight to see considering that this was China, but I saw it a sign of transition within the country towards an increasing environmental awareness.
On Monday after class, Sarah, Anna and I went to the Yunnan Ethnic Minority Park. It is an enormous park in the West side of Kunming next to Dian Chi Lake. I will give a small tip-bit of information for all the next study abroad students who decided to come to China – have your student identification card on you at all times. The benefit is sometimes can be a discount of over 50%. For instance, if I had not forgotten to bring my ID, I would have paid 35 RMB rather than 70 RMB. The park is open year around, but this was the last day that the park was hosting the torch festival. One highlight worth mentioning is when we dressed up in a minority group’s attire. Sarah and I both chose the Yi and Anna chose the Tibetan outfit. They were all beautifully decorated; however, they were not designed for giant Waiguoren such as myself. The staff repeatedly said to me, “你太高了”- You are just too tall. The horned crown was frankly too small, so I played more of a balancing act to keep in on my head. I have uploaded some fun pictures for you to look at with all three of us together. We visited about 6 to 7 minority groups that included the Tibetans, Mongolians, Naxi, Yi, Cun, and Dai.
During sunset, the park literally came to life with the start of the Torch Festival. One minority group after another came performing their traditional dances and playing musical instruments holding a torch as they headed towards the Torch Fire stadium attracting tourists by the hundreds. Once at the stadium, it was jam packed with over 5 thousand souls, most of who had a torch lit. Not all 26 ethnic groups were present, but approximately about 15 took the stadium floor dancing with the crowds – including myself. I joined in learning the dance moves from the person in front of me. A dancing, Caucasian foreign certainly caught a lot of attention, since I was the only one of my kind shaking a leg. Some of the pictures will give a sensation for the rest of the night.
On Wednesday, we went to the Stone Forest that is an hour drive from Kunming City. This historical site is a major tourist attraction, and they have a road for shuttles to circle around its parameters. Sarah, Anna, Even, and I took a different approach to experience the magnificent, limestone stone formations. We walked through some narrow trails where if one of us had been a little fatter along the waist, it would have been impassible. J We toured the site by foot for 5 hours. One of the locations we scouted out was the “Eternal Mushroom.” It took us to a place where there were no other visitors except us, but was by far the most alluring, sightseeing spot in the park. I will stop here because once again and let the pictures do the rest of the explaining.
At the end of the week, Pa Wei introduced me to a friend of his, Joyce. She is a graduate student at Yunnan Normal University (YNU), with a degree in English (UK English and American English). We became good friends over the course of a week. We went back to the Yunnan Ethnic Minority Park and participated in large-circle dance as well as watched the Tibetans and Mao perform many traditional dance and singing. We also joined Pa Wei and some other Yunnan Normal University Students for a night of KTV – Karaoke KTV style. I remember telling Joyce that I wanted to come back to China after graduation at Seattle University to continue my studies at a Beijing University for at least a year. Her stance was that Beijing is simply too expensive for housing and studying, and in addition the air pollution is terrible. She brought up this remark because we had gone running a few days before at YNU track, which was clever tactic on her part. By no means have I made a decision, but it has led me only to research over my options as what I want to do after graduation.
On August 25th, I had a very unique discussion with two Chinese student of Yunnan University. Their names were Carol and Frances. Carol was studying law and Frances was working to become a Chinese-English translator. The conversation began very small such as talking briefly about her Classic IPOD. She told me she went to the United States to purchase it to get the authentic model. However, I told her it was ‘made in China,” which came as a shock to her. She assumed it was in manufactured in the U.S. All I had to do what take the IPOD out of the case, turn it over, and read the small print on the back. This opened a conversation about globalization. In China, foreign manufactured products are taxed heavily to protect and promote domestic businesses, which obviously made it cheaper overseas in the U.S. We discussed my experience at a fruit shop as I purchased some apples. There were no apples from Kunming. They were either from Chile, New Zealand, or Washington State. Their response was that the business just puts those tags on them as incentive for charging higher prices. However, I told them that Washington State is a large exporter of apples to China, so I would assume that they were not locally grown. The topic of Climate Change was also brought up. Carol agreed it was a major crisis and was frustrated with the way things were going. She was the first Chinese student (person) besides Chen Laoshi that I met who also had strong emotional feeling tied to this environmental crisis. I recall that I listed a lot figures, data, and organizations that all pointed out that we have a problem, a global environmental crisis on our hands. Her fundamental question to me was “How do you get people to care?” She acknowledged that the information is available, the scientific evidence is clear, but it is matter of how to make people on a large scale do something about it. I was in total agreement. I expressed that one of the things I have learned in China is the essential need for education – both rural and urban. (I remember when I talked to Joyce and asked her about climate change and carbon emissions of the bus that we were riding. She told me she had never heard of it, was unaware of the issues on a global scale. She further responded that this was my major, not hers. In her view, there first needs to be economic development and then there can be environmental protection. I asked her what should be done about it. Her response was simply, “I don’t have any method of acting.”) The rest of the dialogue was a discussion about a whole host of global environmental problems by pointing out the interconnectedness of this issues and considering what should be done. The discussion lasted for about an hour and a half. They said that I should consider giving a lecture at the Yunnan University or other locations on these urgent issues. It was interesting feedback from two university students who were complete strangers just over an hour ago. I think they saw, perhaps, a passion or a flare that lit up within me as spoke to them. As I went back to my dorm, I felt as if that small duration of time was the most productive use of my time spent in Kunming. I felt as if I had made a positive contribution for two students who were already intrigued and concerned on the topic. I felt in the future I can do some work related to advocacy on these issues. I believe the interest is there at some level, but there lacks knowledge on the linkages.
The following day, Anna, a classmate, approached me during one of the class breaks. Anna was 19-year-old high school graduate and ethnically Chinese, but here grandparents immigrated to France. She had become a friend of mine during the past two weeks, but was usually rather silent. The day prior, she had a Chinese flute tutoring session at the same time as Carol, Frances, and I had the conversation just across from the table we were sitting at. The discussion was about some of the political references I made in that dialogue. I didn’t mention anything about Tibet or Taiwan, but I did talk briefly about the different political systems and how I wish the U.S could be China for a day in terms of it ability to “Say it, then do it” in a very timely fashion. A point I had made was that if the Chinese government felt the urgency and opportunity to invest in renewable energy for example, this could achieve that goal more in more rapid pace than perhaps in America. This was exceedingly bothersome to Anna, and she made that crystal clear to me. Her English was a little difficult to understand, but the overlaying message was that I was a naïve, childish American potentially putting the safety of the students at risk for engaging in such a discussion. The message left was leave any kind of politics out of the discourse, and I was in total agreement. I agreed that I needed to be politically sensitive for future talks.
The last two days, the teacher switched the schedule of the class. We talked in Chinese on personal topics of interest rather than direct readings from a textbook. One of the discussions I brought up the relationship between Burma and China, and the exchange of resources. I carefully tried to skim the subject of politics as much as possible. We also talked about OPEC and China as a large importer of petroleum. This all got Anna pretty upset with me. Her response was to stop this love affair, which she thought was agitating the teacher. I still keep in contact with Anna, but she gave me a perspective about need for sensitivity and the particular styles of communication outside of America. Even though she criticized me the most of all the students, I felt she helped me reexamine how I should address people, and to think twice before speaking especially when culture and politics are foreign to me.
August 28th, 2009
I arrived in Shanghai’s Domestic Terminal at 5:30 P.M, and Joyce and her father who greeted me at the entrance. I was met by a the father’s shofer to assist me with my laThe father had a shofer driving a Toyota SUV, I forgot the model. After a hour drive into the center of the city, we arrived at their apartment complex. Because their apartment was too small for a forth person, her family reserved a hotel room for me across the street, expenses paid, for both Friday and Saturday night. That evening, I met the entire family (Cai Baba - Father, Cai Mama - Mother, Cai Meimei - Joyce) had a dinner in celebration of my arrival. I felt very welcomed and part of the family. Their parents are both Chemists, and Joyce is studying English, which she plans to use after graduation as an English teacher in Shanghai.
On Saturday, I got to experience one unforgettable event. I went to visit the SWFC. It is currently the tallest building in the world at 492 meters, which was just completed in 2008. Joyce parents accompanied us to the entrance, and then we left on our own as they had other plans for the afternoon for preparing an homemade dinner. It was a breathtaking experience to overlook all of Shanghai including the DongFang Mingzu, The Bund and the 3,000 + skyscrapers that make up the horizon. It was truly surreal. The elevator ride was also unbelievable fast. From the basement, we reached the 97th floor, which was the SWFC Observatory, in a matter of 1 to 2 minutes. I felt like I was seated in an aircraft just after takeoff, except this was vertical motion rather than a gradual slope. I wouldn’t go in the details of the building, but it something worth reading about. The exterior and interior design, architectural structure, and state-of-the-art technologies are as futuristic as gets in the year 2009. Anyone interested can easily search it on Google.
In addition, the father and mother prepared an extravagant dinner when we returned. The father fancied seafood and cooked scallops, shrimp, and a California species of trout raised in China. There was a whole duck covered in soy sauce, black mushrooms, pork, white cabbage, and homemade southern-Chinese--styled Jiaozi by Joyce and me. Wait a second; we also had about half a dozen bottles of Japanese branded beer. It was a wonderful, scrumptious treat! J
I will make one environmental comment, and it does have to do with food. An observation I noticed as Joyce’s family was relatively well off financially, their consumption of meat was substantially higher than when I was in Lijiang. For instances, as we had dinner the first night, they ordered approximately … 4 dishes of only meat (duck, beef, and pork). I can remember when I ate in Lijiang, I was picking through my rice bowl for any miniscule pieces. I think the amount of meat I ate in that one dinner was equivalent to about one week of meat for the entire 5 LGEC group. The point here is that I got to observe the difference between rural and urban eating habits and also see the connection between affluence and consumption of meat.
August 30th, 2009
Joyce and I hitched a ride with the father’s shofer to the Shanghai Airport to drop of her father who was leaving Da Lian and Chengdu for work-related meetings. Supposedly, Cai Baba frequently traveled domestically across China. I had realized how fortunate I was to have meet Joyce’s father that weekend and have her entire family give me a tour of Shanghai.
The shofer arrived at the entrance of the Shanghai Business University at 3:00 P.M., and memories began flashback in my mind from one year ago. The first task was for me to get a room for the next two weeks. I won’t go into the knots and blots, but I will comment that Joyce helped assisted me in getting the housing arrangements settled. The room I was given was not a dormitory, but a hotel. I have the room to myself – two beds, a T.V, two desks, two chairs, a shower, toilet, sink, etc. - which was designed for two people and probably could support 5 students.
That night I had a small reunion with several of my friend from the university last year such as Wang Cheng, Alan, Joyce, and Xiao Fei. We had dinner together on the third floor of the cafeteria building, which has dozens of restaurants to choose from. It was absolutely wonderful to see some familiar faces in China who had become close friends just a year ago.
Latter than night, as Wang Cheng and Alan accompanied me back to my dorm, they told me that there was another foreign student from Seattle, Washington. I thought they were twisting my leg because I had been informed earlier that the Bellevue Community College study abroad group had decided not to come this year. It turned out that across from my room was a 30-year old woman from West Seattle. Her name was Jennifer Yang. The name may through you for a loop, but let me clarify, she is Caucasian. She had studied the Mandarin for about 2 years and has been studying Cultural Studies at Bellevue Community College. She actually attended Professor Geiger’s Chinese class for three quarters, and it was networking through her that she decided to come to the Shanghai Business College (SBS). Coincidentally, she arrived last Friday, which was the same date I got into Shanghai. Her plans are two further she language studies at SBS for 5 months as she has enrolled in a class, and eventually wants to be a certified translator for legal firms.
August 31st, 2009
Since I was familiar with the campus, I joined her on Monday morning, as she had not received an agenda for the week. We had breakfast at the cafeteria together, and then it was not clear where to go next. Jennifer only knew the teacher name, Zhong Laoshi. I thought it would be best for us to go to the administration building, which most of the teacher’s office were located. Once inside, I simply asked around for Zhong Laoshi’s office. We were finally told to go to the 4th floor. We met Zhong Laoshi in the foreign student’s office. It almost seemed as if she was expecting us to come. She had prepared to a two-week schedule and gave us a run down of what the events would be. The first week was getting acclimated to the school – learning where everything is on campus and in the surrounding proximity, purchasing food, library cards, and all-day outings in the center of Shanghai. The second week was the official start of classes for the foreign students, the waiguoren. I was asked if I wanted to enroll in a class, but I politely said, “No Thanks,” due to my short stay. As she listened to my Chinese speaking ability, she said that I could stop by, sit in and participate in the class during my spare time. I think she realized I could help add to the class discussions.
Associate Professor Fang who works in the Dean of Foreign Affairs office also came to greet us. I had actually met Fang Laoshi last year as I did my study abroad with BCC (Bellevue Community Colllege). He was surprised to see me return just a year after, and even more impressed when I told him briefly about my stay in Lijiang and Kunming.
Shortly afterwards, Zhong Laoshi took us to pay for the housing fee. I ended up paying 800 RMB for two weeks, which comes to less than 60 RMB per night. It is actually a little cheaper than living at the Lijiang Green Education Center ironically. Or let me rethink that. I currently don’t have Internet access and meals are a separate cost. Zhong Laoshi also gave us introduction to the campus such as getting a campus food and library card. As we toured the library, she told us that she was in a similar position to Jennifer in terms of getting accumulated to SBS. Zhong Laoshi was a new foreign language professor who had just graduated from a Shanghai University in English. Her goal as a new professor was to create and improve the foreign language program, which before has been lacking.
The afternoon was a basketball tournament. I had been invited to join a few friends on the court. I was by no means well dressed. I had forgot to bring any exercising clothing from the states. My substitute was a cotton pair of shorts and T-shirt with a pair of hiking shoes. I had the logo foreigner written all over me at that point. Besides the clothing mishap, it felt great to get some exercise, shot some hoops, and release some stress. It was the first workout in China that I had a good sweat, which may sound disgusting. However, it was like cleansing for my body.
The overall experience here at SBS has been great, and in many feels it has felt like deja-vu all over again. I will say the pace of life in China has been tapering down slightly. My last comment here is that the activities that I doing now where not planned even three days ago. The system in China that I have come to learn is to be open, flexible, and spontaneous. A metaphor that comes to mind is it is like jumping into the rapid Yangtze River and just rolling with the currents.
All the best,
Kevin
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